 Wonderland , which deals with the last years in the life of the late porn star John Holmes, who is played here by Val Kilmer (Lisa Kudrow plays his estranged wife), is receiving much applause for the movie's performances but little praise otherwise. Bob Strauss in the Los Angeles Daily News awards high marks to Kilmer, writing: "The best thing about the movie is Kilmer's charming, manipulative and utterly despicable interpretation of the legendarily endowed John Holmes, well past his porn-star prime and too blitzed to do much more than sponge off dangerous dealers and lie to his adoring teenage girlfriend." A.O. Scott writes in the New York Times: "The high quality of most of the acting makes this otherwise pointless and indulgent movie at least watchable, and Lisa Kudrow's performance in particular provides a glimpse of the better movie you wish it were." The biggest problem with the film, the critics seem to agree is that virtually all of the characters are unlikable. Referring to the fact that the movie derives its name from a Los Angeles street that was the scene of a mass murder allegedly involving Holmes in 1981, Jami Bernard comments in the New York Daily News: "It's hard to care what really happened on Wonderland Ave. when the audience hates the neighborhood." |
