Mr Wonderful *** (1993, Matt Dillon, Annabella Sciorra, Mary-Louise Parker) – Classic Movie Review 8574

Anthony Minghella, the director of The Talented Mr Ripley, Truly Madly Deeply and The English Patient, keeps his discreet, delicate, genteel film-making style intact in a move to the more rough and ready world of downtown New York for the 1993 romance Mr Wonderful.

Matt Dillon provided his most convincing portrait since the 1989 Drugstore Cowboy as Gus, the half-bright electrician who ends up trying to win back his former wife Lee (Annabella Sciorra), though he is now dating Rita (Mary-Louise Parker).

Strapped of cash through alimony payments to his ex-wife, Gus needs to find a hefty load of money to join his buddies’ scheme to buy and renovate an old bowling alley. He decides to pair Lee off with a man so she that will not need his money, but, when he sees her with new boyfriend Dominic (Vincent D’Onofrio), he realises what he is losing.

Mr Wonderful is an agreeably warm and charming old-fashioned romantic comedy that goes for smiles rather than belly laughs, with neatly etched characterisations, keen moments of observation, a heartwarming dénouement, and not a hissable villain in sight. They certainly don’t make ‘em like this any more, and of course they should.

It is written by Amy Schor Ferris and Vicki Polon. Geoffrey Simpson shoots in Technicolor.

Also in the cast are William Hurt, Dan Hedaya, Bruce Kirby, David Barry Gray, Jessica Harper, Peter Appel, and Bruce Altman as Mr Wonderful.

Minghella said: ‘I like to find humour in unexpected places. Where there is humour there is often pain and vice versa. Where those moments overlap is territory I like to explore.’

On a $13,000,000 budget, it grossed only $3,125,424 in the US.

© Derek Winnert 2019 Classic Movie Review 8574

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