Dir.
James Cox, USA, 2003, 99 mins
Cast:
Val Kilmer, Lisa Kudrow, Kate Bosworth, Carrie Fisher, Dylan McDermott, Tim Blake Nelson, Eric Bogosian
During his rein as porn flick king, John Holmes reputedly slept with over 14,000 women and starred in up to 3,000 films. More famous for the size of his equipment than his acting ability, fame and fortune led to drug addiction and roles dried up when he could no longer perform on set. So began a well-documented and much hyped descent into despicable behaviour which ended when Holmes died of Aids in 1988.
Director James Cox's Wonderland is not about the John Holmes of dirty movies, but John Holmes the drug addict, and is therefore more akin to Trainspotting than Boogie Nights in content. Cox concentrates on the factual murders of a group of junkies at a house in Wonderland Avenue, Los Angeles in 1981. John Holmes was accused of the murders, but walked free thanks to lawyer Earl Hanson (who later represented serial killer William G Bonin - The Freeway Killer and the first person in California to be put to death by lethal injection).
With no real or new evidence to go on and with most of the protagonists now dead, Cox weaves his own version of events through the eyes of Holmes, David Lind (McDermott) - a Wonderland junkie who escaped murder, and the detectives working on the case. Using confessional flashback and darkened or bleached out lighting effects, Cox creates his own confused version of what happened and the events leading up to the horrific Manson-like killings.
We meet John Holmes (Kilmer) as he is living from cocained hand to dope-filled mouth, and stringing along teenage girlfriend Dawn (Bosworth). Falling in with a group of equally wasted junkies, Holmes hatches a plot with them to steal drugs from crime boss Eddie Nash (Bogosian). Things go wrong when the twitching junkies realise they've robbed the local psychopath and revenge is meted on them Herschell Gordon Lewis style.
What Cox leaves us with is a very sad, violently told story of a group of friends who experience huge drug-induced highs and desperately paranoid, lonely lows. Holmes vanishes for days leaving strung-out girlfriend Dawn in a rented room with only a TV for company. Dawn is portrayed as a young victim at the mercy of Holmes' charm and seemingly endless supply of drugs. Tied to him by love and dependency, he is even a better bet than Carrie Fisher's brief appearance as a Christian do-gooder. This manipulating side of Holmes' character sets him up as a likely candidate for the murders, willing to do whatever is necessary for drugs and his own wellbeing (particularly in a depressing scene where he uses Dawn's body to settle a drug debt).
Cox chooses first to show heroine addict biker Lind's confession to LA detectives pinning the blame firmly on Holmes. The tables are then turned when Holmes gives his version of events and Cox re-films scenes previously viewed from Lind's perspective. In a clever kind of The Usual Suspects confessional, Cox moves the goalposts as the narrative begins to make sense.
Just as there is no real definitive truth of what happened at Wonderland Avenue so Cox mutes the action by under-lighting the set emphasising brown and yellow hues or swathes actors in bleached out window light, making events blur and merge. A great psychedelic soundtrack accompanies the drug taking and very violent assaults which are intense, visually arresting and strangely poetic, if not a somewhat didactic antidote to the hedonism of the mainliners.
What Wonderland is most notable for is a huge injection of street cred for much of its cast. Val Kilmer has finally made it back from Razzie desperation to the good old days of The Doors. Looking infinitely more sexy than the real John Holmes, but unsettlingly like one of the Bee Gees, his surf-dude athleticism and little boy charm make this messed up, oversexed dopehead a desperately believable character. Flitting from savvy businessman to paranoid flake to lying cheat he makes Holmes both detestable and pitiable. The other remarkable performance comes from Lisa Kudrow as Holmes' toughened ex-wife. Stripped of all her Friends frivolity and grooming Kudrow plays Sharon Holmes with touching empathy, and makes her stand out as Holmes' strongest survivor. Christina Applegate is barely recognisable as a junkie wife and infinitely better than her nail-flicking turn in recent indie Grand Theft Parsons. Dylan McDermott as leather-clad biker Lind is suitably muscled, mean and dirty, and far more convincing than his squeaky-clean lawyer in saccharine Miracle on 34th Street.
Wonderland doesn't pretend to throw any great revelation on these gruesome eighties murders but it does provide some thought-provoking characterisations of people whose lives are ruled by drugs: the addict, their families and the cops. "This case could make our careers," says LA detective Cruz, and Cox seems to be making the statement that people used Holmes just as much as he used them, which belies a sympathy for his characters. The film is mercifully not an anti-drug preacher, but rather an interpretation of some exceptional events surrounding a man pursued by notoriety. What is most surprising is the fact that John Holmes lived long enough to die of Aids and whilst many fell around him, a few, like 15-year-old girlfriend Dawn, survived in spite of him.
Wonderland is a fast-paced thriller, heightening tension with good uses of flash-back to complete narrative holes and create a kind of old-fashioned murder mystery, complete with high body count, street justice and wise-cracking cops. It's characters stay with you in the same way as other gangsters like Bonnie and Clyde who enjoyed such intensely happy times on the road to self-destruction. We may not be much more enlightened about the Wonderland Avenue murders as a result, but it's a fascinating foray into some exceptional lives.
Rebecca Kemp
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