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WONDROUS
OBLIVION
4?/10
UK
2003 : Paul MORRISON : 106 mins
In the last
two decades, Delroy Lindo has established himself among Hollywood's most
commanding and dependable character-actors, popping up in (and often propping
up) films like The Cider
House Rules, Ransom, Get Shorty and Gone
in 60 Seconds. But what most moviegoers don't realise is that
the seemingly all-American Lindo was born to Jamaican parents in the south-west
London borough of Eltham - an area which gained a tragic notoriety in
1993 with the murder of Stephen Lawrence.
It's possible
that this connection formed part of the reason why Lindo (no relation
to the prominent British anti-racist activist of the same name) has made
a rare foray into British cinema with Wondrous Oblivion, an indictment
of racism and intolerance set in the capital's suburbs during summer 1960.
Lindo dominates the screen as Dennis, the hard-working patriarch of a
West Indian family whose arrival in an all-white street doesn't go down
well with everyone in the neighbourhood.
There's one
resident who welcomes the family with open arms, however: 11-year-old
David Wiseman (Sam Smith), a cricket fan whose dreams of sporting success
aren't matched by his ability. Until Dennis installs nets in his back
yard, and offers some informal but expert coaching. David's mother Ruth
(Emily Woof) also gets to know the handsome newcomer - a friendship which
offers an escape from her loveless marriage to the much-older Victor (Stanley
Townsend). As refugee Jews, the Wisemans are sympathetic to the hardships
endured by Dennis and his family - but it isn't long before they must
all deal with the uglier side of not-so-swinging sixties London...
There's much
to like about Wondrous Oblivion - and any film bringing a pro-tolerance
message to our multiplex screens in the current climate (economic and
geo-political) is to be applauded. But good intentions, no matter
how impeccable, only go so far. Writer-director Morrison takes a plodding,
unimaginative and thoroughly old-fashioned approach to his material, resulting
in a film that lurches between worthiness and whimsy. A half-baked combination
of Billy Elliot and Bend
It Like Beckham - with a touch of Far
From Heaven - Wondrous Oblivion ends up a thoroughly and
disappointingly middle-order affair.
12th April,
2004
(seen 22nd August 2003 : UGC Edinburgh - Edinburgh
Film Festival)
click here
for original (note-form) review from Edinburgh 2003 coverage
review written
for Tribune
magazine
by Neil
Young
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