Wonder Boys - 6

Adapted from the novel by Michael Chabon (an adaptation of The Mysteries of Pittsburgh comes out later this year) and set and filmed in Pittsburgh, this film tells the simple and complicated story of an English professor, Grady Tripp (Michael Douglas), who has just gotten divorced and whose life seems in shambles as he is still working on a book that seems to never have an ending. Amidst all this, a flirtatious student (Katie Holmes) is renting out a room, his gay editor (Robert Downey Jr.) shows up with a transvestite friend, and his best student (Tobey Maguire) needs his help. While mostly a character study of the story is full of funny situations and deep conversations about writing and life. Ultimately the theme of making choices emerges and each character comes to realize that the consequences of their choices are important and need to be made decisively if they are to be happy. In the end, Grady decides to write his own life- committing to the mother (Frances McDormand) of his child and abandoning his addictions.