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These days, with a beautiful young wife and baby daughter, we're used to seeing Michael Douglas in all his airbrushed, "Hello!"-type glory.
So perhaps the best thing about "Wonder Boys" is seeing Douglas, an unquestionably good actor when he puts his mind to it, drop that charade to play Grady Tripp, a once-great novelist, now a creative writing teacher at a Pittsburgh college, caught in a mid-life crisis.
In fact, it's not really a good weekend for Grady: his married girlfriend (McDormand) has just told him she is pregnant; his flamboyant editor (Downey Jr) is visiting to check on the progress of his new, still unfinished book, and to top it off, he finds himself playing guardian and mentor to James Leer (Maguire), his talented but rather strange student.
Witty, intelligent, and sophisticated, "Wonder Boys" is a Hollywood rarity. A film with the courage to do what it wants, safe in the knowledge that its characters are strong, funny, and interesting enough to suck the audience in.
You might come to expect it from director Hanson, who made the modern classic "L.A. Confidential", and he has come up trumps once again, drawing excellent performances from this fine ensemble cast.
Particularly good is Douglas as the world-weary author trying to find his spark amongst the snowy surroundings.
Quite frankly, with the formulaic, blockbuster dirge frequently spilled out by Tinselown these days, we could do with more "Wonder Boys".
