NEXT STOP
WONDERLAND

• Starring Hope Davis and Alan Gelfant
• Directed by Brad Anderson
• Rated R, with profanity and sexual references; running time 111 minutes
• With 10 as a must-see, Jack gives this film a 7

By Jack Garner
Democrat and Chronicle

(Sept. 4, 1998) -- Most romances start about the time the central characters meet. Sparks fly, and we see how they fan the flames.

But sparks aren't struck until the final frame of the Next Stop Wonderland. Instead, Brad Anderson's amusing tale focuses on the quirks, happenstance and fate that befall the two should-be lovers before they get together.

If they ever do make a movie about the Erin and Alan romance, Next Stop Wonderland will be the prequel. But frankly, I think Anderson is on to something -- the bumpy road to bliss probably makes for a more entertaining movie than bliss itself.

Blond-haired Hope Davis graduates from the ensembles of Daytrippers and The Myth of Fingerprints into an appealing career-starting lead role as Erin. Once a promising Harvard medical student, Erin dropped out after the death of her much-loved father and mentor. She's now a nurse in Boston.

As the film opens, Erin's being unceremoniously dumped by her boyfriend (Phil Hoffman, native of Fairport, NY), a social activist who is more committed to saving the whales and indigenous tribes than to a relationship.

If that's not bad enough, Erin's aggressive, interfering mother (Holland Taylor) is coming to Boston for the weekend. Mom thinks her daughter must quickly find another man, even though Erin insists she enjoys her solitude.

To Erin's chagrin (and without her permission) Mom places an ad in the Boston personals for Erin, and Erin's voice mail is soon jammed with suitors. The film's wittiest sequence is a montage of the wacky range of men who answer the ad, trying to pass the "audition" to take her out. The funniest is a self-inflated guy who bores her silly, describing his work: He manufactures the little rubber nubs on the base of telephones.

Running parallel to Erin's tale is the story of Alan (Alan Gelfant), a 35-year-old plumber who's struggling to put himself through college for a change-of-life career as a marine biologist. When he's not studying, Alan stays busy as a volunteer at the New England Aquarium in Boston.

The complications in Alan's life include a younger fellow student (Cara Buono) who throws herself at Alan, hoping he'll help her pass the course. He's also pursued by a local mobster (Victor Argo), who lent him money for college.

In the film's least likely and most expendable subplot, the mobster tries to get Alan to kill a rare fish at the aquarium because of a controversial fight between supporters of aquarium expansion and a construction czar (Robert Klein) who has other plans for the urban site. Next Stop Wonderland could stand a 10-minute cut -- and the 10 minutes tied up with this silliness should have been jettisoned.

Otherwise, Anderson's film has the likable mood and humor of a high-end sitcom, and Hope Davis has intelligence and charm to spare, easily drawing us into her various dilemmas, romantic and otherwise.

Next Stop Wonderland also is elevated by its distinctive soundtrack, exclusively Brazilian music. Though the choice may seem strange for a Boston-based romantic comedy, it's justified because Erin and her late father shared a love of bossa nova, and the soft, sensual rhythms are perfect mood-setters.

More to the point, Anderson's film often meditates on themes of solitude, a point the South American jazz eloquently supports.