Wondrous Oblivion is neat and effective for what it is. In Cricketing terms, it's a sort of cinematic equivalent of a steady-going half century complete with the odd blemish that doesn't quite develop into a big hundred. You get the feeling it was made by someone fairly passionate about films and the art of film-making, someone that enjoys taking on subject matter which is fairly familiar but who isn't additionally afraid of tackling issues of discrimination and racism. On a technical level, Wondrous Oblivion works, well, near wonders. On a level of story telling and using an age old arc for its characters to undergo, let's just say the film works to a degree which will not, and consequently has not, seen it shatter any new ground and as a result, has perhaps faded into near oblivion.The location is London, the year 1960; and the film tells the coming of age plus rise in cricketing ability of one young boy named David (Smith) on one strand with the arrival plus socially outcast-driven demise of a West Indian family who have moved in next door, a family headed up by Dennis (Lindo), on the other. The film's underlying idea is that sport can bring people together, and in a time that sees a white Britain have immigrants from the Caribbean arrive and all the questions that come with being in the presence of them, it is fitting that a cricket match at a local ground will see blacks and whites; West Indians and the English-alike, all gather around in one place together at one time in order to share a fondness for a sport being played out in front of them. The sport is Cricket. Cricket is the would-be first love of our lead, a fresh faced and distinctly innocent looking boy who doesn't exactly excel at the sport; relegated to mostly scoring Surrey's county matches and England's home Tests by way in some form or another. All this plus the persistent engaging in his own fantasy cricket matches in which player profile cards pit their wits against one another during which either end of a pencil is used to determine who does what. It would be fair to say David is wrapped up in his own little world.Born to Jewish German immigrants himself, and therefore hardly into a Cricketing family of any kind, David's curiosity in the two things that will form the basis for his transition in the film arrive at once in the form of new immigrant neighbours and the item they set up in their back garden. What could it be? Fabric that aids in growing some kind of sprawling plant? Their own way to tell those next door that this is where their territory categorically begins? No, it's the cricketing net they construct in order so that they may have a bowl and a bat in their spare time. But David eventually bonds with the family's daughter, a certain Judy (Elliot), and before long connects with her in the same way he does with the sport of Cricket, only in a different sense.Director Paul Morrison constructs an odd, consistently wavy sensibility about things within a period setting. I don't doubt the authenticity of the sets recreated for the era, but Morrison somehow manages to blend that raw, unhinged and really rather hostile 'look' of a kitchen sink drama of its time with several other sequences of a more lightweight, upbeat and romanticised nature that come with a similar atmosphere. For most of the time that the West Indians have only recently moved in next door, a lot of what we see of them in constructed from a gaze that sees the onlooking character peer down at them from the somewhat hallowed turf of their own home. Standing at a window looking at them in their kitchen doing whatever or in the garden building the Cricket net, the technique calls to mind a certain sense of trepidation of how young David views them – his point of view constructed as if it were a sense of curiosity blended with that want to keep one's distance and just survey. The technique is banished when he interacts with them more and more often, the stuffy and somewhat dismissive tone of the elderly English adults nearer the start of the film springing to mind as the only other time we've seen him previously interact with an adult that isn't a member of his family; Dennis' soothing, calm and relaxed voice plus mannerisms taking centre stage for a quick session of bowling. Unlike the stuffy, nonchalant English who dismiss his skills and relegate him to scoring his school's cricket matches, Dennis is patient with David and comes to coach him.Morrison balances everything much like he balances the gritty, racially driven hatred of some scenes with the more uplifting mostly sweet sequences of David and Judy interacting in a young and naive manner at times of great tension: lopsided, but mostly feeling more important than it actually is because of the subject matter. A certain rawness desperately wants to kick at certain times, particularly towards the end, while a sub-plot involving David's mother and potential infidelity sort of exists to bulk out the runtime. But the film works on the whole, with the quirky and upbeat aesthetic creeping into realms of near fantasy when it transpires David, very briefly, captains a West Indian international: they're here because the West Indies, conveniently, are due to play England in a test series, although I looked it up and it appears South Africa were the touring side for the summer of 1960. Regardless, Wondrous Oblivion is worth seeing for the steady piece it is. Whereas a lesser film taking on the sort of varied material might've been clean bowled early on, Wondrous Oblivion provides a scratchy innings which survives a few scares, before going on to make a score of some extent.

WONDROUS OBLIVION may seem a puzzling title for this film about racism, coming of age, and understanding and acceptance, but if it is meant to tag the feelings with which the viewer is left after the film, the phrase describes it well. Some critics have labeled this a cross between BILLY ELLIOTT and FAR FROM HEAVEN and while that comparison may be a bit too heavy, the films share many things in common. Writer/director Paul Morrison has stirred the pot of nostalgia with all the right ingredients the result is a film that should bring a very large audience to its feet.The time is the 1960s in London in a neighborhood shared by Jews and other faiths. One family in particular, the Wisemans, live comfortably as German immigrants whose elder family members died in Nazi Germany. David Wiseman (Sam Smith) is eleven years old, and preoccupied with cricket, a sport for which he collects souvenir cards and idolizes players yet who has no skills at playing the game, but stays with his passion with the school team as a score keeper. His father Victor (Stanley Townsend) is all business, and his mother Ruth (Emily Woof) is a kind woman who seems to need more attention than her husband offers. Into the house next door moves a family from Jamaica - Dennis (Delroy Lindo), his wife and two daughters are happy people and play Jamaican music while they construct an odd entity in the tiny back yard, a construction that ends up being a cricket court as Dennis and his daughter are devoted cricket players.In no time the shy David introduces himself and shortly becomes invited to join in learning how to play cricket with the warmly loving Dennis and family. David learns the game well enough to become part of the school playing team and with his increased popularity he is honored with a birthday party, a party to which his new friend form cricket lessons next door is not invited. Hurt, she refuses to play with David any more and that fact unveils a series of events that have been in existence progressively since the black family moved into the white neighborhood. David's mother is warmly noticed by Dennis and the two come very close to a love relationship. Finally a tragedy occurs that brings out all of the needs and the prejudices, the feelings and the commitments that serve to change the way each of the families in the now mixed neighborhood view each other. The tragedy becomes a blessing in disguise.The flavor of the 1960s, the importance of familial Judaism, the joy of the Jamaican view of life and the bigotry that can decimate good people are all captured with great finesse by Morrison. The large cast is excellent with Sam Smith and Delroy Lindo giving particularly fine performances. This is a film that will warm the heart, teach us more about things we little understand, and leave us with the hope that Morrison will make more films of this high caliber. Highly recommended. Grady Harp

Wondrous Oblivion, United Kingdom-Germany, 2003, d. Paul Morrison, 106 m. "Heartwarming" is perhaps overused in describing films, but it's certainly apt in this case. In 1960's England an unathletic young boy and his family bond with a Jamaican family which has moved into the neighborhood and built a cricket court in their backyard. Many of the neighbors are horrified at this infiltration of their turf by a Black family, but young David seizes the opportunity to learn cricket skills from the skilled Dennis. As the bond between the two families grows, so do the problems. The ending may surprise you. Think of "Wondrous Oblivion" as this year's "Bend It Like Beckham." Though the film is sometimes strident in expressing its anti-racism theme, still the best word to describe it is, yep, heartwarming.—Nick Salerno.

"Wondrous Oblivion" is a film that has as its motive one of the most boring sports out there (at least for those who don't play it) – cricket. Thankfully, Paul Morrison's second feature, after the award winning "Solomon and Gaenor" (1999), is not about cricket at all.We are given a coming of age story of a Jewish boy, David (Sam Smith), born in the family of two Holocaust survivors in the 1950s England: Victor (Stanley Townsend), a Polish émigré, and a very young Ruth (Emily Woof), coming from Germany. The boy has an empowering passion for cricket, obvious from his massive card collection of cricket celebrities. However, he is totally rubbish at it. His destiny is to change when a Jamaican émigré family comes next door, and sets up an improvised cricket court. Dennis Samuels (Delroy Lindo) teaches the boy the craftsmanship of the sport, and becomes a close friend of David.All seems a very familiar bad-sportsman-turns-great story, but Morrison's script is ingenious enough not to fall in the stereotypical Hollywood film-making. The boy doesn't end up the great sportsman that we all wish him to be, but learns something greater, something more important in the process. And this is the 'wondrous oblivion' the author intended to deliver… The 1960s as a whole becomes a decade of surprising changes and animosity, and yet all characters seem to remain static in their conception of their beliefs.This is a good film, and it is worth seeing for the original cinematography and a moving performance from Emily Woof ("Passion", "The Full Monty"), which steals the whole film. Watch out for the dance scene with Lindo, which is dominated both by passion, and religious taboos, and it is surprisingly sexy. The only three problems in the movie are the simplicity with each the Holocaust theme is being treated, the poor knowledge of Jewish faith, as well as the stereotypical two-dimensionality of the entire supporting cast. But this applies only for a picky audience."Wondrous Oblivion" is one of those films that one cannot dislike, or at least loathe. Pacing, beautiful, and quite funny really.