Wondrous Oblivion
Wondrous Oblivion was written and directed by Paul Morrison. A number of years ago his wonderful film Solomon and Gaenor was nominated for an Oscar in the best foreign language film category. It was the tragic story of a romance between a devoutly religious Jewish man and a Christian woman. His latest film has some of the same themes running through it as the previous one did.
The story takes place in London in roughly 1960. It focuses on the Wiseman family who live in South London. There are not many Jews on their block and their next door neighbors, who are Jews, are moving to a better part of town. This gives Victor (Stanley Townsend), who is the head of the household, food for thought. He works very hard running his shop and puts in extra hours because he wants a better life for his family. Because of this Victor has very little time or energy left for his family. Victor and Ruth have a son and a daughter. Their son David loves cricket. He is the scorer for his school's team but he would much rather play. Unfortunately, he is not that good.
After a short period of time a new family with the last name of Samuels moves next door. They are from Jamaica and very friendly. If some of the people on the block have trouble with Jews living there you can only imagine how they feel about black people. Dennis Samuels (Delroy Lindo) builds a cricket net and practices the game with his daughter Judy ( Leonie Elliott). David sees this and asks if he can join in. Dennis is happy to help the boy improve his game. At first David's parents are not happy about this but they come to not only accept but befriend the Samuels family. I will not go into any more plot details but I will say that prejudice will rear its ugly head in this story.
The film was made in 2003 and is first getting released in the US three years later. I don't see why it had problems getting a distributor here but the distribution process in the US has been very tough these days. It is a good little film with a moral to it. All of the acting is fine and I loved the way they recreated London in the early 60s. The film doesn't talk about anything that we don't already know but it is an important reminder to us that hatred is alive and well. Although this story takes place over 40 years ago things have not changed that much but we need films like this to remind about this sad state of affairs.
The story takes place in London in roughly 1960. It focuses on the Wiseman family who live in South London. There are not many Jews on their block and their next door neighbors, who are Jews, are moving to a better part of town. This gives Victor (Stanley Townsend), who is the head of the household, food for thought. He works very hard running his shop and puts in extra hours because he wants a better life for his family. Because of this Victor has very little time or energy left for his family. Victor and Ruth have a son and a daughter. Their son David loves cricket. He is the scorer for his school's team but he would much rather play. Unfortunately, he is not that good.
After a short period of time a new family with the last name of Samuels moves next door. They are from Jamaica and very friendly. If some of the people on the block have trouble with Jews living there you can only imagine how they feel about black people. Dennis Samuels (Delroy Lindo) builds a cricket net and practices the game with his daughter Judy ( Leonie Elliott). David sees this and asks if he can join in. Dennis is happy to help the boy improve his game. At first David's parents are not happy about this but they come to not only accept but befriend the Samuels family. I will not go into any more plot details but I will say that prejudice will rear its ugly head in this story.
The film was made in 2003 and is first getting released in the US three years later. I don't see why it had problems getting a distributor here but the distribution process in the US has been very tough these days. It is a good little film with a moral to it. All of the acting is fine and I loved the way they recreated London in the early 60s. The film doesn't talk about anything that we don't already know but it is an important reminder to us that hatred is alive and well. Although this story takes place over 40 years ago things have not changed that much but we need films like this to remind about this sad state of affairs.
posted by Film Fanatic | 10:02 AM
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