![]() I didn't for a moment believe in this character. In trying to mask his natural boyish charm, Broderick overplays the character's nastiness to a level that approaches caricature. ![]() The Visitor provoked a genuine emotional response Wonderful World contains yeast that never rises.īroderick, who has come a long way since Ferris Bueller (the role for which he is still best known) is a poor fit for Ben. Perhaps the real problem with Wonderful World evoking recollections of The Visitor is that, even in an indirect comparison, the inferiority of Goldin's effort is apparent. Yet, as believable as Jenkins' transformation was, that's how hard it is to swallow the second-rate spiritual journey undertaken by Ben. In a strange sort of way, Wonderful World recalls The Visitor, the below-the-radar 2007 film starring Richard Jenkins as a man who rediscovers his humanity when he connects with two squatters living in his New York apartment. But has she wormed herself into Ben's affections and bed because she cares for him or because he's her best bet for obtaining a green card? For a while, this improves Ben's disposition and Khadi's influence coaxes enough humanity from his soul for him to share a few nice moments with his daughter. Ben invites her to stay with him and, in a surprisingly perfunctory fashion, the two fall in love. His sister, Khadi (Sanaa Lathan), arrives from Senegal to be at his side. One day, Ibu goes into a diabetic coma and is hospitalized. The chip on Ben's shoulder is made more pronounced by his marijuana-induced visions of "The Man" (Philip Baker Hall), who lectures him on the unfairness of life. ![]() His teenage daughter, Sandra (Jodelle Ferland), finds her times with her father to be so intolerable that she no longer wants to spend nights or weekends in his custody and invents excuses to deny him his court-appointed rights. This lifestyle is a come-down for someone who was once a successful performer of children's songs. Ibu, who joins his cohabitator in playing chess and smoking joints, is the closest thing Ben has to a friend. Wonderful World's themes are clearly conveyed, and the movie avoids what could have been an unbearably cloying ending, but too much of what's on screen feels forced and unnatural.īen Singer (Matthew Broderick) is a recently divorced, middle-aged man who works as a proofreader and shares his apartment with a roommate, Ibu (Michael K. A woefully miscast Matthew Broderick headlines a group of actors who have accomplished good things in the past but are left rudderless in veteran screenwriter Joshua Goldin's directorial debut. Although the story is derivative and not entirely credible, the main problem germinates from unconvincing performances. You know how it goes: the poor excuse for a human being experiences a spiritual re-awakening and sees the world in a different light. Despite a film festival pedigree (it was shown at a number of local festivals on the 2009 circuit), the movie is so lightweight and inconsequential that a review seems almost superfluous. Fremont, and Gregg Palmer as mountain man Jim Bridger).Wonderful World feels like a modern-day half-baked riff on Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol. These included a miniseries based on Daniel Boone (not the Fess Parker characterization), Texas John Slaughter, Elfego Baca, Francis Marion, the "Swamp Fox", and 1977's Kit Carson and the Mountain Man (with Christopher Connelly as Kit Carson, Robert Reed as John C. Later original programs consisted of dramatizations of other historical figures and legends along the lines of the Davy Crockett mini-series. ![]() For many years, the show also featured edited one-hour versions of such then-recent Disney films as Alice in Wonderland, and in other cases, telecasts of complete Disney films that were split into two or more one-hour episodes. Originally hosted by Walt Disney himself, the original format of the Disney anthology series consisted of a balance of theatrical animated cartoons, live-action features, and other informational material (some original, some pre-existing) from the studio's library. However, Hallmark Hall of Fameaired as a weekly program during its first five seasons before becoming a bi-monthly program, while Disney remained a weekly program for more than 40 years. The show is the second longest running prime-time program on American television, behind rival film anthology, the Hallmark Hall of Fame. The same basic series has since appeared on several major networks. The Wonderful World of Disney sometimes called "Walt Disney's Wonderful World of Color" premiered on ABC on Wednesday, October 27, 1954.
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