Wonderland Release Date: October 3, 2003 Starring: Dylan McDermott, Tim Blake Nelson, Lisa Kudrow, Val Kilmer, Natasha Gregson Wagner, Paris Hilton, Janeane Garofalo, Carrie Fisher, Eric Bogosian, Christina Applegate, Josh Lucas, Kate Bosworth Directed by: James Cox
PREMIERE.COM REVIEW (posted 10/6/03)
Centered around the world’s, ahem, biggest porn star, Wonderland depicts John Holmes (Val Kilmer) well after his glory years, showing the highly endowed onetime triple-X stud as just another drugged-out loser, reduced to exposing himself as a party gag to score cocaine. The key to a successful biopic is finding the portion of the subject’s life that matters most and cropping out everything else. In The People vs. Larry Flynt, the narrative begins with Flynt’s early days opening the first Hustler Club and ends when he wins the landmark Supreme Court case protecting free speech. Wonderland finds “Johnny Wadd” well past his heyday, and far past the point where his biopic should have ended—if in fact the King of Porn warrants further immortalization on celluloid at all.
Regardless, Wonderland tells the story of Holmes’s involvement in the 1981 Wonderland Avenue murders of four drug dealers who robbed an L.A. kingpin Eddie Nash. According to the film, Holmes set up the initial robbery by the Wonderland gang and then, when he was found out, led Nash’s cronies back to Wonderland and may have participated in the murders of the Wonderland gang.
Director James Cox and his writing partner Captain Mauzner’s attempt to interweave the perspectives of multiple characters is spoiled by constant flashbacks and jump cuts, which jolt us back and forth through time. The filmmakers may have wanted to deconstruct any sense of a formal, cohesive narrative; instead, they have merely demolished it. Had they focused on Holmes’s girlfriend (Kate Bosworth) and wife (Lisa Kudrow)—the only sympathetic characters—and their loving attempts to save him from this world rather than delving into the muck itself, Wonderland could have been elevated above what is ultimately a tricked-out, feature-length episode of Unsolved Mysteries in which a superb ensemble cast (notably Kilmer who reincarnates Holmes’s blundering persona, and Kudrow in a rare dramatic turn) is pretty much wasted.
It is noteworthy that the filmmakers have attempted to piece together the missing links of the 22-year-old massacre by reinvestigating archives, interviewing key participants, and ultimately uncovering new information. Too bad they never uncovered the fact that making a real-life porn star the central character of your squalid tale does not make it inherently more interesting or illuminating.
