The Wizard of Loneliness Movie Review
The Wizard of Loneliness, a pile of nostalgic goo (although another word also comes to mind) from American Playhouse will eventually wind up on public television, interrupted by excruciating pledge breaks which will run a tight race to rival this film's boredom level. Lukas Haas, whose large brown eyes and riveting presence stole Witness and The Lady in White from award-winning adult actors, delivers a credible performance in an impossible, unsympathetic role. Lea Thompson and John Randolph, two fine and much underrated actors, also give their roles far more texture than is provided by John Nichols’ novel. There was a sharply observed immediacy about 1987's British wartime valentine, Hope and Glory, which The Wizard of Loneliness lacks. Set in a Vermont small town, Wizard seizes on obvious and not always accurate symbols of 1944: the Prince of Wales, when none existed between 1936 and 1958, Life magazines, 1988-style frankness about 1944-style sexual frustrations, yellow filters over the camera lenses, and trend-setting 1934 fashions. (Even in Vermont, they received mail-order clothing catalogues.) There is the obligatory goofball escapee from the trenches whom everyone protects (for reasons best known to the screenwriter), even after he punches Lea in the stomach and smashes a glass against his little son's forehead. Hey, without this wretchedly acted character, there would be no anti-war statement. Just in case we don't get the point, there is a parallel sequence involving a large white male rabbit and his newly born offspring. (And everyone knows what fascists rabbits ran be.) Even if you ignore the sluggish pacing, the obnoxious dialogue, and the thematic falseness, you are still stuck with Jenny Bowen's leaden direction. Or then again, maybe not. woof!
1988 (PG-13) 110m/C Lukas Haas, Lea Thompson, John Randolph, Lance Guest, Anne Pitoniak, Jeremiah Warner, Dylan Baker; D: Jenny Bowen; W: Nancy Larson, Jenny Bowen; C: Richard Bowen; M: Michel Colombier. VHS, LV, Closed Caption