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Porn
Yesterday FILM:
Wonderland (R)
DIRECTOR: James Cox
STARRING: Val Kilmer,
Kate Bosworth
WHERE: Canal Place
GRADE: C
John Holmes was big. No,
he was huge. At the height of his powers, the man known as the
Porn King had hundreds of movies -- and thousands of conquests
-- to his name. An icon in an industry not exactly known for
status, Holmes would reign until his porn-star prowess was eclipsed
by an escalating drug habit. In the end, perhaps the only thing
bigger than his legendary endowment was what happened when porn
was done with him, a sad story told in director James Cox's
erratic half-a-biopic, Wonderland.
In 1981, years after Holmes'
last movie role, Los Angeles police were called to the scene
of four gruesome murders in an apartment on Wonderland Avenue
in Laurel Canyon. By now a circus-freak fixture on the fringes
of L.A.'s drug culture, Holmes was believed to be involved,
but his level of participation has always been a question
mark; Wonderland sketches two possible scenarios. First,
partner-in-crime David Lind (an out-of-Practice Dylan
McDermott in a strong against-type performance) tells his
version of what went down to the cops, then Holmes tells his.
The truth -- something about drugs and guns and Palestinian
crime boss Eric Bogosian -- is undoubtedly somewhere in between.
That's about as much structure as Cox is willing to commit
to; he's much more interested in a gimmicky, time-lapse directorial
style that enjoys minor moments of effectiveness early on
but frequently only cheapens the strong performances it surrounds.
Val Kilmer effectively plays
Holmes as a damaged, disturbed naïf. We are left with
a sense of a troubled man, capable yet incapable of the savagery
portrayed in the film's brutal climax. Lisa Kudrow's portrayal
of Holmes' dour-but-loyal wife, Sharon, is as complicated
as it is quiet. In a performance well beyond the rest of her
resume, Kate Bosworth (Blue Crush) absolutely emits
innocence lost as Holmes' barely-of-age girlfriend. And a
feral Josh Lucas (Hulk) maximizes his bit part as a
small-time drug dealer.
Cox is largely carried by
his cast, a notable exception being the disturbing realism
of his murder scene, the sickening sounds of which echo long
after the credits have rolled. His largely music-driven mood
is another, imbuing '70s and '80s songs like "Shooting Star"
and "Love on the Rocks" with a previously unthinkable poignancy.
Still, when the epilogue is more revelatory and interesting
than some of the movie, it becomes clear that the appeal of
John Holmes and the appeal of Wonderland are one in
the same, and that's strictly as a novelty act.
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Shala Carlson Archives
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