Wonderland

The dark underside of Boogie Nights is tracked in Wonderland, a sleaze-filled look at the notorious "Wonderland Murders" of 1981. The movie attempts to explain how the legendarily endowed porn actor John C. Holmes was involved in the killings, while deliberately suggesting the difficulty of knowing the truth of a murky case. The police procedural aspects turn out to be less intriguing than the weirdly hapless domestic life of Holmes (Val Kilmer at his most dazed), who despite his promiscuity continues to rely on his starchy, clean-cut wife (an unflattering role for Lisa Kudrow, but the most interesting character in the picture). Well-known actors--notably a near-unrecognizable Dylan McDermott--slouch through the story, which rather distracts from the aggressively realistic approach. In the end, the unclean aura makes one yearn for the stylized ingenuity of Boogie Nights, or at least a reason to be watching this story this way. --Robert Horton