Paul Morrison/UK/2003; R4
Warner Bros, NZ$29.95 | Reviewed by Tim Wong

OR, the postcolonial "googly". Sporting a love for cricket, Paul Morrison's immigrant characters do more than indulge in a favourite pastime; they take ownership of a game once propagated throughout Asia, Africa and the rest of England's island trophies (including New Zealand) by way of underlining colonial rule (until people like the West Indians started knocking the Poms for Six). And it's this sometimes rocky transition from Gentlemen's-to-People's game that Wondrous Oblivion appropriates as a life-metaphor-cum-Post-It note for migration and social acceptance into a prejudiced 1960's South London community.

Tunneled through the Jewish, cricket-obsessed vision of 11 year-old David Wiseman (Sam Smith) – he knows everything about the game except how to play – his nonexistent ability and worldview soon broadens with the arrival of next-door neighbors (fathered by the enjoyable Delroy Lindo). The street's newest residents are Caribbean and equally mad about cricket; enough to construct their own batting net on top of the garden patio. As the only two non-English families on the block, there's a tepid, if inevitable solace with one-another beyond the throws of cricket, particularly in the face of unwelcoming stares, hate mail, and worse, vandalism from the film's gorblimey antagonists – livid perhaps, that a West Indian family can shift years of colonisation into reverse by simply moving in across the street.

It's at this point Wondrous Oblivion clicks over into familiar Brit-coming-of-age mode, juggling the aesthetic (and holistic) ideals of cricket with the harsh realities of life outside the boundary rope. Hopelessly feel-good, it predictably exists under the protective dome of a cricketer's box, able to deflect a generation of bigotry and discrimination by the story's end. Of course sometimes, sentimentality is unavoidably charming, and having loved-yet-sucked at cricket as a boy, the film tamed me on a level of backyard nostalgia tinged with the growing pains of race. Most of all though, it's a sports movie that's really not, dodging genre clichés and the preordained act of "hitting the winning runs", in favour of cherishing cricket as a beloved summer's game that can bridge cultures, as all sport should.


PRESENTED in a clean 1.78:1 transfer with 16:9 enhancement for widescreen televisions, the film is accessed via quaint animated menus mimicing the cricket-styled opening title sequence. The weight of the disc's extras lie in the director's commentary. This is pretty standard stuff – plenty of pre-production talk buffered by frequent lip-service towards the core cast members – although does manage to dredge up a few late, unlikely insights as Morrison briefly elaborates on Fellini influences and the modeling of David's apology to Judy on a Western high-noon "showdown".

The remaining two extras consist of a theatrical trailer, and a 10 minute Behind The Scenes Featurette, incorporating cast and crew interviews with production footage; most notable, being the filming of the cricket scenes.