Wondrous Oblivion (2004)

this movie wants me to change the world.yes, change the world. change all that is supposedly right in it. The gap between rich and poor, male and female, black or white. It fills me with wonder...at how beautiful and poiganant life can be. and is. It also terrifies me because i realize how caught up we are in the "race to make big".every scene, word, character speaks to me. my favourite scene is when the black child girl comes to the birthday party of the white boy whom she plays cricket with, how he is embarrassed to be with her.That is my world. What happens henceforth in the film ,gives me hope.It speaks of a world that is safe. secure.sound. sadly ,this isn't our world. but the film gives me hope.it can be we can fill this world with wonder. we too, make a difference. we too, can change the world.

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.

Eleven-year-old David is so passionate about cricket, he barely notices he doesn't know how to play. But when his cricket-mad new neighbors teach him the game, David begins to emerge from his 'wondrous oblivion'. Trouble is, David's Jewish, his neighbors are Jamaican and this is 1960 in pre-multicultural London.Wondrous Oblivion is a delightful film with an important message. Sam Smith engages as David, and there is a wonderful rapport between him and his neighbors: daughter Judy (newcomer Leonie Elliot) and father Dennis, played by Delroy Lindo from Malcolm X, and Gone in Sixty Seconds. Coincidentally, Jamaican-born Lindo actually grew up in Lewisham, where the film is set, at around the same time.And it's not just David that matures as a result of meeting these happy-go-lucky Caribbeans : his mother Ruth (Emily Woof – The Full Monty, Velvet Goldmine) and father Victor (Stanley Townsend) gradually become less afraid of life. Wondrous Oblivion was written and directed by Paul Morrison, who garnered an Academy Award nomination for Best Foreign Film for his first feature Solomon and Gaenor. Recommended, even if you don't play cricket. ***½/***** stars.

A sensitive and well-made study of the impact of two waves of immigrants on London communities: the first in the form of a young family of German-born Jews driven out by Hitler, the second in the form of their new neighbours from Jamaica. Cricket is the medium which draws together young cricket-mad David and his new neighbours - especially the cricket-made father and daughter of the family. But the friendship also leads David's young mother, neglected by her workaholic, decent and God-fearing husband, to develop a crush on her more warm-hearted, more vibrant but also decent and God-fearing West Indian neighbour whose habit of spending all day in a string vest and more free-and-easy manner is something of a contrast with her husband's straightlaced attitude and permanent uniform of woolly cardigan. Both David and Ruth fall to the temptation to exploit their new friends: David uses Judy to help him improve his cricket, Ruth attempts to use Dennis for the sexual satisfaction she is missing out on as her husband works all hours to improve the family's fortunes (and send his children to expensive schools). But when Judy turns up at David's birthday party he turns her away; and when Ruth makes a pass at Dennis, she is politely but firmly repulsed. This is a lovely film that deserves to be remembered; it is very accurate of the period full of good little touches but also has a strong, positive ending in which both couples, and both families, become stronger and closer despite their diverging paths, as the enmity of the local racists draws them together in near-tragedy.