WONDERBOYS

Year: 2000
USA: Paramount Pictures
UK: UIP (UK)
Cast: Michael Douglas, Tobey Maguire, Frances McDormand, Robert Downey Jr., Katie Holmes, Richard Thomas, Rip Tom, Philip Bosco, Jane Adams, Richard Knox, Michael Cavaias, John R Devich, David Lean, Matt Ross
Director: Curtis Hanson
Country: USA
UK: 111 mins
USA Rated: R for language and drug content
UK Certificate: 15 for strong language and drug use
USA Release Date: 8 November 2000 (Re-release)
USA Release Date: 25 February 2000
UK Release Date: 3 November 2000


Synopsis

An unfinished novel, a stolen car, a murdered pet, an unstable student, a fed-up wife, a pregnant lover - it's safe to say that Grady Tripp has a number of issues to deal with this weekend. Grady is a 50ish English professor who hasn't had a thing published in years not since he wrote his award-winning Great American Novel seven years ago. It's hardly surprising, then, that his college's annual literary festival fills the former wonder boy with more than his usual quota of self-doubt and anxiety. This festival weekend, however, proves even worse than he could have imagined as he finds himself reeling from one misadventure to another in the company of a new wonder boy, James Leer. He's Grady's most gifted writing student. He's also a fluent liar whose peculiar behavior launches the professor on a picaresque odyssey of self-discovery.