Have you ever wondered why newspaper advice columns are so popular? Well, it’s because other people’s problems are fascinating. They give us a break from our own petty messes as well as an opportunity to think, “golly, maybe things aren’t so bad around here, after all.” All of which is the silver lining to Michael Winterbottom’s gloomy, grey Wonderland, a grainy snapshot of some of the bleaker aspects of life in London.
The film follows the lives of an unhappy family during a late autumn weekend. Fragmented and somewhat confusing at first, the separate stories eventually intertwine. Nadia, played wonderfully by Gina McKee, is a lonely waitress who spends her evenings in pubs meeting – and later sneaking out the back door to escape from – men who have answered her personal ads. Her two sisters – Molly (Molly Parker) and Debbie (Shirley Henderson) – are hardly any more content with their lives. Molly is extremely pregnant and married to a man who is terrified of telling her he’s quit his sensible job as a salesman to follow his dream of becoming a chef. Debbie is single with a young, oft-neglected son, an irresponsible ex-husband and a string of sordid one-night stands. Their brother, Darren (Enzo Cilenti), appears in the film only occasionally, having run away with his girlfriend after an argument with his parents. His mother, the sour, miserable Eileen (Kika Markham) is obsessed with finding a way to silence the incessantly barking dog-next-door and constantly takes out her frustrations on her downtrodden husband Bill (Jack Shepherd).
Well acted and directed, the film includes many characters that are appealing at times and detestable at others, thus making them ring utterly, quite horribly true. The relationship between the three sisters is one of the more depressing aspects of the film; they seem almost entirely unsympathetic to each others’ suffering. When Molly’s husband leaves her after an aborted argument about his career plans, one sister reacts with sighs and rolls of her eyes and the other responds with inexplicable snickers. The film is sometimes frustrating to watch, as the characters’ dysfunctional relationships and rotten life choices are likely to cause howls of aggravation in many a viewer.
Despite the often-unappealing subject matter, however, the film remains compelling. Part of its allure is due to Winterbottom’s visuals, which add interest to a sometimes-slow moving plot. Scenes of London at night shot in fast-motion give the illusion of movement although the story is a fairly immobile concern. Steadicam shots and grainy film enhance the gloominess of the characters’ lives, but there are incongruously uplifting moments – such as rapturous scenes of a football match and an inappropriately triumphant soundtrack.
At the end, and after all of the gloom and misery, there is a tiny and unexpected twinkle of hope that somehow makes it all worthwhile. Some of these sad cases seem to have made progress where it seemed that things were irreparable. Which just goes to show that maybe there’s a chance for the rest of us, too.
