Walking in a Loving, Lyrical ‘Wonderland’

“Wonderland” is a loving group portrait of a South London working-class family and what they experience in the course of an exceptionally event-filled weekend. Director Michael Winterbottom and writer Laurence Coriat pile on the incidents a bit thickly and are not afraid to draw upon coincidence now and then in order to make the larger point that life can be a demanding business for one and all and that respect should be given those who forge ahead no matter what.

The characters, places and predicaments have a kitchen-sink realism, but the feel and rhythm of the film is lyrical, poetic even, and cameraman Sean Bobbitt’s images of contemporary urban life have a burnished radiant glow. Michael Nyman’s entirely exceptional score has a Philip Glass-like repetitive insistence but with a heroic flourish that expresses the simple bravery of the human spirit. There is an exalted quality about the film in its depiction of everyday life. In short, “Wonderland” is an extraordinary film, as entertaining as it is observant, about ordinary people.

We first meet Nadia (Gina McKee), a most attractive and intelligent young woman. She’s a waitress who, despite her looks and considerable charm, has turned to the personal ads in her search for love. This opens up the possibility of romance--and also of humiliation. Her older sister Debbie (Shirley Henderson), separated from her immature husband, Dan (Ian Hart), is a hairdresser and a loving mother to her young son Jack (Peter Marfleet) but also an uninhibited party girl. Jack is often left to his own devices, which means that, like lots of other kids, he spends much time in an electronic universe of TV and video games.

There’s a third sister, Molly (Molly Parker), whose imminent motherhood throws her lover Eddie (John Simm) into a major panic attack. In the meantime, the three sisters’ parents, Eileen (Kika Markham) and Bill (Jack Shepherd), are stuck in a loveless marriage in a noisy flat; they are estranged from their only son, Darren (Enzo Cilenti).

In one of the film’s most poignant incidents, the listless Bill, inadvertently locked out of his flat, finds refuge with a neighbor, Donna (Ellen Thomas), who gets him to dance. Experiencing a spark of life for the first time in a long time, he later reaches out to Eileen in their bed only to have her cruelly reject him.

It seems significant that Coriat, in her screenwriting debut, was born in France. Although she has spent the last 17 years in England she seems to have retained a quintessentially French sensibility; her people are all looking for love to the exclusion of almost everything else. This preoccupation works for “Wonderland,” but even though it is a truism that people want to be loved, they can also have lots else on their minds.

The film’s performances are uniformly splendid and McKee, in particular, has a special glow.

As the film unfolds with an effortless flow you find yourself pinning all your hopes on Jack, who seems brighter than everyone else in his family. He’s the one person who seems to have an imagination and an ability to look out with wonder at a world his elders no longer seem to notice in their emotional self-absorption and struggle for survival. Disturbingly, “Wonderland” leaves you wondering whether any of his relatives were like him when they were children.

* MPAA rating: R, for some strong sexuality, and for language. Times guidelines: language, sexuality.

‘Wonderland’

Gina McKee: Nadia

Molly Parker: Molly

Shirley Henderson: Debbie

John Simm: Eddie

A USA Films/Universal Pictures release of a BBC Films presentation of a Kismet Film Co./Revolution Films production. Director Michael Winterbottom. Producers Michele Camarda, Andrew Eaton. Executive producers Stewart Till, David M. Thompson. Screenplay by Laurence Coriat. Cinematographer Sean Bobbitt. Editor Trevor Waite. Music Michael Nyman. Costumes Natalie Ward. Production designer Mark Tildesley. Running time: 1 hour, 48 minutes.

Exclusively at the Westside Pavilion Cinemas, 10800 W. Pico Blvd., West Los Angeles, (310) 475-0202, and the Town Center, Bristol at Anton, South Coast Plaza, Costa Mesa, (714) 540-0594 or (714) 777-FILM (No. 323).