Wondrous Oblivion (2003)

• Year: 2003
• Released: 23 Apr 2004
• Country: United Kingdom, France, Germany
• Adwords: 2 wins & 4 nominations
• IMDb: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0334725/
• Rotten Tomatoes: https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/wondrous_oblivion
• Metacritics: https://www.metacritic.com/movie/wondrous-oblivion
• Available in: 720p, 1080p,
• Language: English, Hebrew, Yiddish
• MPA Rating: PG
• Genre: Comedy, Drama, Family
• Runtime: 106 min
• Writer: Paul Morrison
• Director: Paul Morrison
• Cast: Sam Smith, Leagh Conwell, Dominic Barklem
• Keywords: london, england, 1960s, child protagonist, cricket, new neighbor,

	7.0/10
	61/100
	66% – Critics
	68% – Audience

Wondrous Oblivion Storyline

Ruth Wiseman, of Jewish descent, married a much-older man and the couple now lives in 1960s Britain with their son and daughter. Their Caucasian neighbors tend to look down on them, and they receive threatening handwritten notes. Their son David loves cricket, but his playing lands him in charge of the scoreboard at his school. When the Samuels from Jamaica move in next door and set up a net so they can bowl cricket balls in their backyard, David meets them, and through Dennis and Loretta, he learns how to bat and bowl. He then requests to be included on his school team, and after being put through a preliminary test, he succeeds–as a tail-ender. In the very first match, David proves his worth and is promoted to middle-order batsman. He subsequently fares even better and instantly becomes popular. His popularity increases his awareness and he decides to forsake his friendship with his mentors, while some neighbors decide to take matters in their own hands to show the supposedly undesirables of their neighborhood that they are not wanted, in the neighborhood or in Britain in general.

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Wondrous Oblivion Movie Reviews

London Fields

This is one of the best films about the immigrant experience in the UK that I’ve seen in a while.

It starts off appearing to be about a very English-looking German Jewish boy who’s family are ultra-assimilationist and who wants nothing more than to succeed at the most English of sports, Cricket.

As it unfolds it takes in the experiences of some of the first West Indians to come to England, and are much more talented at cricket but doomed to suffer the depradations of little Englanders by virtue of their high melanin levels.

The complex racial issues that ensue are handled in a way that’s sensitive and believable, as long as you can believe that the young jewish boy really is jewish, and not the scion of some old anglo-Norman family. The period detail is pretty spot on as well, though the use of colourised pathe footage slightly jars with the overall aesthetic of the film.

Mercifully, you don’t have to be able to understand cricket to get this film, just appreciate how difficult it can be to live in a strange country

Cricket, Ska and Kosher Jammers

This is a delightful and very entertaining movie. You do not have to be mad on cricket to love it (my partner Janie proves that point) but I suspect it helps.

My own background is quite similar to that of the young lad (not quite so long ago, not quite so poor, not quite so bad at cricket without coaching, not quite so good with coaching……) so my own views on the films charms and resonances are probably unrepresentative. Suffice it to say that the film touched almost all of the right buttons.

There are some lovely, amusing bits. For example, one sequence shows several short shots of the characters playing “yard cricket”, including one shot of them trying to practice catching in their sowesters in the pouring rain. Hilarious and delightful.

The racism theme is handled with great sensitivity, but without the complexity that might otherwise make the film profound rather than obvious. The film is sentimental, at the end especially so, to the point of being cheesy. But then quattro formaggio with extra cheese and parmesan on top tastes pretty good.

There are one or two historical anomalies. Most reports of the film I have seen refer to the date as 1960. West Indies toured England with Worrell and Sobers in 1957 & 1963. Worrell was finished by 1966. I think it must therefore be 1963. But there’s a lovely scene where the Jewish mother and West Indian father dance to “I’m in a Dancing Mood” by Delroy Wilson – published 1966. In fact most of the Ska (or should I describe some of it as Rock Steady) would have been post 1963 I think. But I suppose I should get a life rather than fret about these things – the music was wonderful. And juxtaposing Ska with “Micky Katz and his Kosher Jammers” and yard cricket worked surprisingly well.

It is a lovely film and well worth the investment of 106 minutes to smile, laugh and be moved.

Race in Britain is not often dealt with so well

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.