Too much of everything

This story has more twists and turns than a second-rate soap opera.

This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.

Each character in this movie — down to the smallest one — is an individual rather than a type, prone to spontaneous changes of mood and sometimes amusing outbursts of pettiness or ill humor.

When you're introduced to our main character, seemingly a sad-sack cynic, you expect another Indie flick about depressed people in a nihilistic world. But that's not really who she is, and she's surrounded with anything but that.Her mother loves life and always looks on the bright side. Her gay coworker is cheerful and compassionate. Her ex boyfriend is misguided by sweet and well meaning. Her dates are mischievous but funny and confident. Also, our male protagonist is a great guy. He's trying to better himself and find the good in nature and simple pleasures. He does this while trying to maintain respect for his roots. So as you can see, this is not the typical Indie take on modern people. Of course it came out in 1998, so perhaps the pre-911 film world reflected a world of hope that would soon vanish. Phllip Seymour Hoffman is great here. What a funny, quirky character, without being pretentious or overly self-righteous. He plays it to perfection. Boston looks real and romantic, without the urban or tourist clichés of a Paris or New York. We see that it's just the right size with the right pace to get some meaningful life done. However, one visiting character nails its colder side with the perfect comment about all the schools, hospitals, and bars.What a great concept. To have people living in one interesting city, while fantasizing the whole time about another one. Rio perhaps. Walking the byways of Boston with Bossa Nova accompaniment. Of course let's not forget that Brazil is filled with intense poverty, shantytowns, and violent crime. So the music is more a state-of-mind than a reality. Perhaps that's what we are all seeking, and what the picture was ultimately trying to show. That we all strive for some paradigm or ideal that may not be attainable, but the notion of it gives us hope and keeps us in the game.

Erin's boyfriend (Sean) has dumped her. I see why immediately. Why she would ever do anything with Sean is not so easy to see.The film is irritating and all too self-aware; incidental music is all too often wretched.Halloween at the hospital; nursing staff scares the hell out of the toddlers.Erin's mother Piper places a personal ad for Erin in the local newspaper without advising Erin.Sub-plot: the aquarium where Alan is working is planning an addition. Not everyone likes this, and the aquarium grounds are vandalized. Arty Lesser and his construction company want to build a prison there.At an aquarium party, Frank asks Alan to kill one of the aquarium attractions and Alan's money loan from Frank will have the interest removed.The ad does it's work; Erin gets 60 messages on the first time she checks. Yikes, so many people, so many losers, at least in their telephone presentations of themselves. She skips most of these, and the skips most of those that she meets. The men she meets are unacceptable for one reason or another. The Emerson quote (a foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds) was a deal-breaker for three of the possibles, one of which was Alan's brother. She notices that two men watching her with a third were men she had met before.'The only person who can help you is yourself.' Right. Women do not need men. Point asserted again and again and again.Seventy-eight minutes into the film, she still has not met Alan, but a Brazilian man (Andre) is very interested in her. Erin likes Brazil and Brazilian music, so that goes smoothly for a time. Alan is with Julie; this is doomed from the start. Alan with Julie heats up for a moment; so does Erin with Andre.Sean comes back and wants to re-unite with Erin. No such luck.Andre is about to go back to Brazil, and wants Erin to come with. She gears up to do this.Alan gets to meet Arty Lesser, who tells Alan that he is at a turning point in his life.Erin gets held up in traffic. She tries to make it using a train. More rotten camera work.Missed connections. Erin does not go to Brazil. Alan does not solidify his position with the big-time gangster Lesser.During the last two minutes, Erin and Alan connect on the Emerson quote, and go for a walk on the beach.----Scores----Cinematography: 4/10 Never in focus. The poor framing and wobbly camera movement is distracting and counterproductive as well as amateurish.Sound: 7/10 Some of the jazz by named artists is rather good, but does not really add much.Acting: 4/10 Hope Davis is uniformly bad; the extra layer of chain smoking was a layer I could have done without. Holland Taylor was fine, Alan Gelfant was OK. Hoffman was as irritating as usual. Just about nothing seems to have enough buoyancy to counterbalance the dead weight of Hope Davis.Screenplay: 6/10 Slow developing. Is the payoff worth the long wait? No. So many sub-plots were left unresolved. The Brazilian trip goes down the tubes. Too many characters, too many dangling ends.

Hope Davis elevates "Next Stop Wonderland", a slight romantic comedy written and directed by Brad Anderson. Davis plays a melancholic nurse who paradoxically yearns for love and hungers to be alone. When her mother takes out a personals ad, Davis' character finds herself inundated with men, most of whom attempt to force themselves upon her.Eventually Davis meets a marine biologist played by Alan Gelfant. The duo instantly fall in love, having spent the rest of the film repeatedly "just missing each other". The film ends with our lovers discussing a quote by Ralph Waldo Emerson: "a foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds". Elsewhere it contains quotes by Wordsworth: "from our better selves we have too long been parted by the hurrying world, and droop, sick of its business, into solitude." And so Davis' character believes herself to be trapped in dull, stifling routines, routines which are "out of sync" with who she believes she "really is". Gelfant, in contrast, creates rigid routines and proudly sticks to them (he even refuses to kill a fish for money etc). Through him, Davis thus learns the value of self-worth. She accepts her own "consistencies" as "not being foolish", but rather valid and intrinsic "parts" of what and who she "really is". Emerson's quote is itself from an essay titled "Self-Reliance", essentially a parable about trusting yourself and shrugging off outside pressures.The film contains a good supporting role by Philip Seymour Hoffman, some good dialogue, but Anderson's messy editing is less subversive than it thinks it is, and a subplot with local mafia men is atrocious.7.9/10 - Worth one viewing.

Erin (Hope Davis) is recently single (her boyfriend moved out), a nurse and looking for Mr. Right. Alan (Alan Gelfant) works at the New England Aquarium, is a student and has no time for love. Naturally they're made for each other. We watch their separate lives all through the movie slowly intertwining them and drawing them to each other.This is a very small independent film, shot in Boston and picked up by Miramax. If you know Boston and the surrounding cities some of this is amusing. Erin lives in a huge apartment in Beacon Hill--there's no way a nurse could afford that. Also she meets all her dates a bar called the Burren which is located two towns away in Somerville! But they did get Wonderland right--that's a station on the Blue Line subway where Alan lives near.Those little goofs aside (actually they're pretty funny) this is a very nice, romantic film. A perfect date movie. It's got a very laid-back feeling that is absolutely charming. This is helped with a very soothing music score. But be warned--this movie is only for true romantics! If you look at it in a serious frame of mind you're gonna hate it. But if you're a romantic (like me) you'll love it! Davis gives a very nice low-key performance (but she could have lightened up a little); Gelfant is good also--and has beautiful eyes. Also well-directed by Brad Anderson. Not believable for a moment but boy--is it romantic! I recommend it. I give it an 8.