Wonderful World (2009 film)

Ben Singer (Matthew Broderick) is a former children's folk singer whose misanthropic worldview leads him to an isolated existence. When his Senegalese roommate Ibou (Michael K. Williams) falls into a diabetic coma and is taken to the hospital, his sister Khadi (Sanaa Lathan) arrives from Senegal to take care of him. After Khadi and Ben eventually fall in love, circumstances lead Ben to reconsider his way of thinking.

• Matthew Broderick as Ben Singer
• Sanaa Lathan as Khadi
• Michael K. Williams as Ibou
• Jodelle Ferland as Sandra
• Philip Baker Hall as The Man
• Jesse Tyler Ferguson as Cyril
• Patrick Carney as Evan
• Ally Walker as Eliza
• Dan Zanes as Sweeny
• David L. J. George as the Male Nurse

As of January 2021, the film holds a 42% approval rating on review aggregate Rotten Tomatoes, based on 31 reviews with an average score of 5/10. The website's critical consensus reads: "Matthew Broderick gives an appealing performance and director Joshua Goldin's script contains unexpected bursts of honest emotion, but Wonderful World's good intentions can't make up for its lack of originality."[2] On Metacritic, the film scored a 48 out of 100 based on 15 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews".[3]

The A.V. Club's Scott Tobias and Entertainment Weekly's Owen Gleiberman both gave the film an overall C grade, the former calling it "a paint-by-numbers tale of redemption for a man whose wounds are mostly self-inflicted" and the latter saying that, "[I]t's all very sincere, but watching a dweebish depressive learn that Life Is Good is a lesson of diminishing returns."[4][5] Nick Schager of Slant Magazine called it "a checklist-indie that offers up clichés with gusto equal to that of its earnestness", criticizing Dan Zanes' "sorrowful score" and Ben's overall arc feeling "stock" and having "doggedly implausible" circumstances that lead to a "preordained conclusion", concluding that: "Goldin's mush about learning to stop and smell the roses is pretty close to being bottom-of-the-barrel."[6] Kyle Smith of the New York Post called the film a "would-be indie heartwarmer", commending Broderick for giving "a typically strong performance" but wrote that, "[A] problem of the curmudgeon flick is that it's doubly difficult to make the audience care."[7]

Frank Scheck of The Hollywood Reporter praised the performances of Broderick, Ferland and Lathan, and wrote about Wonderful World overall: "While the film easily might have gone in an overly treacly direction, Goldin manages to avoid it, thanks to some unpredictable plot twists that subvert our expectations based on years of feel-good movies."[8] New York film critic David Edelstein, gave the film a positive review stating "the movie is unfailingly likable and finally impressive."[9] Stephen Holden of The New York Times praised Broderick for emitting "the right attitude" for his role and the soundtrack's mixture of "African guitar music" and "folk-pop songs" for giving off "little dashes of ebullience" and "a whimsical sweetness" respectively, but was critical of Philip Baker Hall's "infrequent" appearances throughout the movie, concluding that "he throws this delicate, intelligent film, which at its best suggests a muted hybrid of The Visitor and It's a Wonderful Life, off balance."[10] Dan Kois of The Washington Post wrote that: "If the components of Wonderful World seem a little tired, the film still has its own low-key pleasures, thanks to Broderick's restrained performance and a script that punctuates the inescapable saccharine of its storyline with tart little bursts of anger."[11]

• List of films featuring diabetes

• Official website
• Wonderful World at AllMovie
• Wonderful World at Box Office Mojo
• Wonderful World at IMDb
• Wonderful World at Rotten Tomatoes