Movies about sociopaths are not supposed to appeal to their subjects, and they usually don't. But Wonderland, about an unsolved 1981 quadruple homicide of alleged drug dealers and their girlfriends can only be entertainment for sleezeballs. Be warned, despite sounding like a commercial gangster movie with a big star, this picture is a disgusting waste of time.
The center of interest in the Wonderland Avenue Murders is porno legend John C. Holmes (a.k.a. 'Johnny Wadd), whose claim to fame was his huge endowment, said to be 13 1/2 inches long. His career peaked in the mid-70s and he later died of AIDS in 1988. When the murders occurred, Holmes was a partied-out hanger-on to a group of fast-lane dealers who were making bundles in the pharmaceutical bull market of the time. Somebody, no one knows who, got the idea that these "fat cats" were ripe to be taken. One night, a little group made the assault, blowing away four of a party of five and lifting a cool quarter of a mil.
Police investigators immediately pointed at Holmes, the most visible member of the tribe. He probably knew who was killing whom for what. He may have even been a perpetrator who likely ratted out his co-conspirators to save himself. Obviously co-writer-director James Cox must think so, since he built the entire movie around Holmes, a shallow, desperate goon as played by Val Kilmer.
A clinging, half-hearted reminder in the narrative that Holmes may have been just a bystander undermines what little drama there is.
Kilmer's character is written as a man trapped by his lifestyle. His "romantic" side consists of loving a 15-year-old girl who is more drugged out than he is. He swears he will clean them both up as soon as he can afford to. (A sentiment that may have been motive for robbery.) He even cries to the wife he never divorced, who berates him, but always has a shoulder for his tears.
I hadn't heard of Cox before; nor of the three other names on the script. But I am impressed that, besides the supposed exhaustive research they all did, Cox had the class to hire Holmes' former teenage squeeze and his wife to serve as accuracy consultants. As for a sign of any directorial talent behind Wonderland, at least the film is often in focus.
Sometimes when a picture this bad has a decent cast, the actors take over and make the over-the-top characters entertain us. Wonderland has such a cast. Besides Kilmer, a little of whom goes a long way, young Kate Bosworth as his teen squeeze, Tim Blake Nelson, Josh Lucas and Dylan McDermott make up the ensemble. They have all done far better work elsewhere.
For the record, and this is no reason to suffer through this movie, Lisa Kudrow as Mrs. Wadd has the picture's only mature moments, and Eric Bogosian gives a scary cameo of infamous drug kingpin Eddie Nash.