A CHARMER WITH JEWS, BLACKS, & CRICKET!
Added 5/3/2009
A feel-good picture, starring the excellent Delroy Lindo from "The Ciderhouse Rules." As head of a Jamaican immigrant family moving into a London neighborhood whose occupants are suspicious are barely tolerant of newcomers, he befriends the son of the Jewish family next door in teaching him the finer points of cricket, a game the kid loves but is lousy at, so much so that his coach at school relegates him to scorer instead of player. Very nicely done all around, this movie deserves a far wider audience than it received upon release. Rent it or buy it, but by all means SEE it!
0 out of 0 people found this helpful.
|
Sweet coming of age story with serious overtones
Added 9/28/2008
David Wiseman, the 13-year-old hero of this sweet coming-of-age story, is obsessed with cricket -- but has no idea how to actually bat, bowl or field. The son of repressed, fearful Holocaust survivors, he is unlucky enough to be growing up in early 1960s London where racism, anti-Semitism and good old British snobbery are never far below the surface.
Having grown up with a somewhat similar background in that place and time myself, I can attest that the movie is spot-on in its depiction of British society of that era.
David's fortunes change when a Jamaican family moves in next door and proceeds to built a cricket net (the equivalent of a batting cage) in the narrow back garden. David is drawn to the family like a moth to a bright light. He makes friends with the father and eldest daughter who is his own age and they start coaching him in cricket.
I won't give away all the plot developments of this movie. Suffice to say that the acting is very good, the characters sympathetic (with the exception of the racist extremists who raise their ugly heads) and you don't need to know anything about cricket to enjoy this movie.
It was slightly spoiled for me by an overly sweet "Disney" ending in which everything is neatly and happily resolved in a way that rarely happens in real life. Still, this movie brought back many memories, sweet and bitter, for me. I recommend it.
1 out of 1 people found this helpful.
|
Slow-moving, with some disturbing messages
Added 10/8/2007
This film wants to be a warm and fuzzy family movie about friendship, loyalty, and learning to accept people of other races. It has a few problems going in. There's a disturbing subplot in which David's mother Ruth attempts to seduce new Jamaican neighbor Dennis, which frankly makes the movie inappropriate for children. The dialogue is difficult to understand, at least for an American, though it's hard to say whether this is due to the accents or the recording. The movie is also very slow-paced and could have done with some editing.
A crucial scene is one in which David rejects the daughter of his Jamaican neighbors, telling her she can't come to his birthday party. She is terribly hurt by this and cuts off their friendship. I thought this was a little unfair on her part. The fact is that children of this age prefer to play in gender-segregated groups, and this is found cross-culturally. While it certainly could happen for a close friendship like this to develop between a boy and a girl, conducting such a friendship in front of the boy's male friends would certainly have led to teasing, if not worse. This would have happened even if the girl had been white. While being loyal to friends is fine, promoting the idea that gender shouldn't matter in friendship strikes me as silly.
The film's central message, that people of other races and customs enrich our lives, has some truth, but in our time it has been taken to an absurd extreme. Multiculturalism started out innocently enough as a way to avoid genocidal massacres like the Holocaust, and bring peace and harmony to the world. It hasn't worked out that way. Immigration by significant numbers of people of alien religion, customs, and ethnicity is extremely disruptive to any country or neighborhood. Community feeling and trust between neighbors naturally declines when such immigration occurs. Britain in recent decades has accepted far too many such immigrants, with destructive consequences that are becoming hideously clear. What were these Jamaicans doing in Britain anyway? Why did they leave Jamaica? Jamaica faces desperate problems these days, and trying to solve them by exporting some of its population only creates more problems elsewhere.
Overall, I would suggest skipping this movie.
0 out of 2 people found this helpful.
|
Wondrous Oblivion
Added 5/12/2007
Thoroughly delightful. Very educational regarding the sport of cricket, little known or appreciated in the US.
1 out of 1 people found this helpful.
|
Another good movie from Palm Pictures
Added 5/2/2007
When I was young I would gather my plastic army men and wooden blocks that my brother made me and proceed to orchestrate battles as grand in scope as Iwo Jima. In my mind, the soldiers would bark orders, charge the hills, take schrapnal, and as all wars go many would die. Many a brave little, green man remains buried in my old backyard to this day.
Such is the case in Wondrous Oblivion. (Don't worry, if you can't remember the title you will be reminded about a dozen times throughout the movie, not a bad thing.) David Wiseman wants to be the worlds greatest cricket player, and if heart were the measure of greatness in such a sport, the movie would be over in 10 seconds. In his spare time he collects hundreds of crackerjack cricket cards, much like baseball cards. One of the nicest touches in the film is how these cards are handled when he is alone with them. The writer of the movie has an understanding of the inner workings of a child's mind.
David lives with his jewish family in a predominantly british neighborhood. The neighbors seem to "tolerate" the fact that they are jews, and can only be described as nosey, busy bodies. If you are familiar with Anne of Green Gables - Rachel Lynde on steroids.
The core of the story is the boys love of the game, and how the black family (The Samuels) that have moved in next door teaches him how to overcome his awkwardness and put his heart where his cricket bat is. Surrounding the core is the racial indifference towards the Samuels and Wisemans. One nice scene occurs when Davids father hears a noise outside and goes to the window to investigate. Subtle and powerful.
If there were any complaints about the film, it would have to involve Davids mother and her ever increasing infatuation with Mr Samuels. Though the subject matter is handled tastefully, I think it may be a little much for a pg movie aimed at kids. It may be a little difficult for them to digest, especially one scene. Again though, there is a great lesson learned here and is true to the characters involved. For older children you could take advantage of the situation to teach some morals.
There is a lot to be learned from Wondrous Oblivion: Overcoming obstacles, chasing your dream, and the importance of family. Kids have so few movies to chose from, and so little to allow their own imaginations to work (as computer technology does all the work for them now). It's nice to see movies like Wondrous Oblivion and Secondhand Lions come along which teach can deep lessons - if you want them - but at the very least spark the imagination. Great Film.
1 out of 1 people found this helpful.
|
