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Alex in Wonderland
Perhaps a little full of himself after his smash hit Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice, director and screenwriter Paul Mazursky did a serious backslide with 1970's Alex in Wonderland, a talky and pretentious show business comedy-drama that starts off promisingly, but eventually veers off in so many directions that the viewer really doesn't have a clue what Mazursky is trying to say here.
Donald Sutherland plays the title character, Alex Morrison, a movie director who has just completed directing his first film. The film has not been released yet, but it's getting very positive buzz. Alex finds himself being courted by a major studio head and trying to put his wife off regarding buying a bigger house, but the only thing on Alex's mind is what his next project is going to be. The problem is Alex has no idea what that project is going to be.
Initially, Mazursky and Larry Tucker's screenplay seems to be an Americanized version of 8 1/2. Federico Fellini even makes a cameo appearance in the film. Initial interest is provided as Alex contemplates making a film about Lenny Bruce but decides not to do it because he feels no one can play Lenny Bruce but Lenny Bruce. Then he decides he wants to make a movie about racial tension in the country, but friends and hangers on convince him that he is unqualified to make such a movie. We then just watch Alex wandering around Hollywood looking for ideas and it isn't nearly as interesting as Mazursky thinks it is.
The core of the piece actually comes early on when Alex meets with a studio head (played by Mazursky himself) who has apparently seen Alex's first film and is determined that his second film will be for him and throws every script on his desk at Alex, in hopes that he will accept one as his next directorial assignment. This scene is terrific; unfortunately, the film goes seriously downhill after that where we are subjected to bizarre fantasy sequences that are supposed to represent the kind of movie Alex wants to make, including an encounter with a group of naked black people that reminded me of a scene in the equally bizarre Up the Sandbox and a chance encounter in a bookstore with French actress Jeanne Moreau that actually turns into a musical number. These scenes are interspersed with scenes of Alex emotionally abusing his family because he can't decide what he wants to do next. And I'm still scratching my head over the last ten minutes of the film...it doesn't seem to end, it just seems to stop.
What does make this movie worth a look is a near brilliant performance by Donald Sutherland as Alex and the always watchable Ellen Burstyn does bring substance to the role of the wife that isn't in the screenplay. Mazursky's real life daughter, Meg, also appears as Alex's older daughter, Amy. I've always been a fan of Mazursky's work, but this one just left me confused and a little bored.
Perhaps a little full of himself after his smash hit Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice, director and screenwriter Paul Mazursky did a serious backslide with 1970's Alex in Wonderland, a talky and pretentious show business comedy-drama that starts off promisingly, but eventually veers off in so many directions that the viewer really doesn't have a clue what Mazursky is trying to say here.
Donald Sutherland plays the title character, Alex Morrison, a movie director who has just completed directing his first film. The film has not been released yet, but it's getting very positive buzz. Alex finds himself being courted by a major studio head and trying to put his wife off regarding buying a bigger house, but the only thing on Alex's mind is what his next project is going to be. The problem is Alex has no idea what that project is going to be.
Initially, Mazursky and Larry Tucker's screenplay seems to be an Americanized version of 8 1/2. Federico Fellini even makes a cameo appearance in the film. Initial interest is provided as Alex contemplates making a film about Lenny Bruce but decides not to do it because he feels no one can play Lenny Bruce but Lenny Bruce. Then he decides he wants to make a movie about racial tension in the country, but friends and hangers on convince him that he is unqualified to make such a movie. We then just watch Alex wandering around Hollywood looking for ideas and it isn't nearly as interesting as Mazursky thinks it is.
The core of the piece actually comes early on when Alex meets with a studio head (played by Mazursky himself) who has apparently seen Alex's first film and is determined that his second film will be for him and throws every script on his desk at Alex, in hopes that he will accept one as his next directorial assignment. This scene is terrific; unfortunately, the film goes seriously downhill after that where we are subjected to bizarre fantasy sequences that are supposed to represent the kind of movie Alex wants to make, including an encounter with a group of naked black people that reminded me of a scene in the equally bizarre Up the Sandbox and a chance encounter in a bookstore with French actress Jeanne Moreau that actually turns into a musical number. These scenes are interspersed with scenes of Alex emotionally abusing his family because he can't decide what he wants to do next. And I'm still scratching my head over the last ten minutes of the film...it doesn't seem to end, it just seems to stop.
What does make this movie worth a look is a near brilliant performance by Donald Sutherland as Alex and the always watchable Ellen Burstyn does bring substance to the role of the wife that isn't in the screenplay. Mazursky's real life daughter, Meg, also appears as Alex's older daughter, Amy. I've always been a fan of Mazursky's work, but this one just left me confused and a little bored.