Next Stop Wonderland

Next Stop Wonderland is a 1998 American romantic comedy film directed by Brad Anderson, written by Anderson and Lyn Vaus, and starring Hope Davis and Alan Gelfant. It premiered at the Sundance Film Festival on January 17, 1998, where it was nominated for a Grand Jury Prize.

Plot

Two people live unlucky in love in Boston: Erin, whose activist boyfriend Sean has just walked out on their relationship to help a Native Americans in [the United States|Native American] tribe fight off a land development deal, and Alan, a plumber struggling to pay off family obligations while pursuing a career as a marine biologist. Both deal with personal and professional problems and stumble through relationships, continually crossing one another's paths without ever truly meeting and realizing how perfect they are for one another. Time and time again one almost catches the other's eye, but circumstances intervene. After a series of ups and downs both of their budding relationships with others crash and burn, just in time for a chance meeting on the MBTA train heading to Wonderland station in Revere, Massachusetts, on the outskirts of Boston.

Cast

Hope Davis as Erin Castleton
Alan Gelfant as Alan Monteiro
Philip Seymour Hoffman as Sean
Cara Buono as Julie
José Zúñiga as Andre de Silva
Sam Seder as Kevin Monteiro
Callie Thorne as Cricket
Jimmy Tingle as bartender
Holland Taylor as Piper Castleton
Robert Klein as Arty Lesser
H. Jon Benjamin as Eric
Frank L. Ridley as whale watch captain
Lawrence Gilliard Jr. as Brett
Release

The film, which cost $1 million to make, was an audience favorite at the Sundance Film Festival in 1998. A bidding war among studio distributors resulted in Miramax Films paying $6 million for the film's North American distribution rights. The film grossed $3.3 million during its theatrical release.

Home media

The film was released on VHS in 1999, and also received a 2001 US DVD release from Buena Vista Home Entertainment, a home video arm of Miramax owner The Walt Disney Company. It also received a Region 2 DVD release in the UK.
In 2010, Miramax was sold by The Walt Disney Company, with the studio being taken over by private equity firm Filmyard Holdings that same year. Filmyard sublicensed the home video rights for several Miramax titles to Echo Bridge Entertainment, who re-released Next Stop Wonderland on DVD in 2012, with new artwork. Miramax was then taken over by Qatari company beIN Media Group during March 2016. In April 2020, ViacomCBS acquired the rights to Miramax's library, after buying a 49% stake in the studio from beIN. Next Stop Wonderland was one of the 700 titles Paramount acquired in the 2020 deal. The film was later made available on Paramount's free streaming service Pluto TV.

Soundtrack

The film's soundtrack is scored by Claudio Ragazzi with various renditions by Vinicius Cantuaria, Arto Lindsay, and Bebel Gilberto. It was released on Verve Records.

Reception

Rita Kempley of The Washington Post wrote: "It's the individual characters, so carefully crafted, who count, as opposed to a tidy conclusion". Varietys Todd McCarthy wrote that Next Stop Wonderland is "Low on plot but high on charm and personality", adding that "s a sly, hand-crafted indie that is very alive and attentive to its characters' feelings and foibles". Stephen Holden of The [New York Times] said that "Next Stop Wonderland isn't really much more than a beautifully acted, finely edited sitcom, but it creates and sustains an intelligent, seriocomic mood better than any recent film about the urban single life".