Runtime: 1 hr 46 mins
Synopsis: Eleven year old David Wiseman is mad about cricket but no good at it. He has all the kit but none of the skill, and he's a laughing stock at school. So when a Jamaican family move in next door and build a cricket net in the back garden, David is in seventh heaven. But this is 1960's England, and when the... [More]
Genre: Comedies
Starring: Sam Smith, Delroy Lindo, Stanley Townsend, Emily Woof, Richard Ashton
There's a certain sensitivity -- fine performances, too -- in the subtle handling of the sexual tension between Woof's repressed Jewish spouse and Lindo's handsome stranger. Overall, a safe single when it might have played for the boundary.
Top Critic
It's too lightweight to truly succeed as a memorable social drama, but the film's sweet-natured, eager-to-please tone -- backed by Smith's appealing performance -- makes for enjoyable viewing.
Top Critic
The story is just too simpleminded, as though aimed not quite at grown-ups.
Enjoyable, sweet-natured, feel-good drama featuring strong performances from Delroy Lindo, Emily Woof and newcomer Sam Smith.
Ultimately, it's an earnest rites-of-passage drama that's likely to work better on the small screen.
Top Critic
Writer-director Paul Morrison (Solomon & Gaenor) goes for wistful coming-of-age sweetness with this fascinating but slight racial drama.
Click to read the article
Top Critic
David's favorite exclamation is "wondrous!" %u2014 which happens to be a fitting description for the talents of writer/director Paul Morrison.
Wondrous Oblivion is a timeless tale of an 11-year-old South London boy putting aside boyish things. Writer-director Paul Morrison affirms PG-rated life lessons that could appeal to 11-year-olds and their elders alike.
Top CriticClick to read the article
Top Critic
For all its bright-hued nostalgia (the cricket greens are practically incandescent), Wondrous Oblivion edges up to hard truths, most powerfully expressed in Lindo's towering performance.
Top Critic
A touching rite-of-passage flick which simultaneously sends several valuable messages about friendship, fidelity, tolerance, and reaching for the stars.
You don't have to know anything about the sport of cricket to be charmed by Wondrous Oblivion, a British film that is finally getting a well-deserved theatrical release after opening the San Francisco Jewish Film Festival in 2004.
...Thanks to solid performances and very nice cinematography, it hits, if not a home run, at least a solid double (or the British equivalent).
A family film with a difference, Wondrous Oblivion displays real bite as it incisively tackles such adult subjects as racism, anti-Semitism, adultery and the plight of immigrants in an intolerant land.
It's a delight to see Delroy Lindo -- perpetually cast as tough cops and tougher crooks -- playing a tender father and decent (if struggling) husband.
Amid the mawkish mess rests a genuinely touching love story between two people who are considered outcasts by mainstream society. Too bad they're not the stars of the movie.
IGN.com |
GameSpy |
Comrade |
Arena |
FilePlanet |
ModCenter |
GameSpy Technology
TeamXbox |
Planets |
Vaults |
VE3D |
CheatsCodesGuides |
GameStats |
GamerMetrics
AskMen.com |
Rotten Tomatoes |
Direct2Drive
IGN RSS Feeds
Comment
