THE WIZARD OF LONELINESS

US, 1988, 111 minutes, Colour.
Lukas Haas, Lea Thompson, Lance Guest, Dylan Baker, John Randolph, Anne Pitoniak.
Directed by H. Anne Riley.

The Wizard of Loneliness is based on a novel by John Nichols. It is a focus on a young boy, living with his grandparents in the period at the end of World War Two. The young boy is played by Lukas Haas. He is a lonely boy, but feels that he has some supernatural powers. This makes the film a blend of realism and surrealism. The supporting cast includes Lea Thompson who had appeared in the Back to the Future films earlier (and had a later career on television, with the Jane Doe series).

Lukas Haas had made Witness a few years before The Wizard of Loneliness. He had emerged as a very strong child actor and has continued his career as an adult actor with great success.

1. A piece of Americana, the atmosphere of World War Two?

2. The adaptation of the novel, the perspective? An art film?

3. The locations in Vermont, 1944? The town, the seasons, the shops and homes, the ‘slum’, the trains? The woods? The beauty of the surroundings? The musical score?

4. Wendall’s story, the title of the film – a boy who is different, lonely, yet ordinary? His journey?

5. Wendall and his age, glasses, Helen? Fred? The war, the journey? The encounter with Duffy, the dollar? His arrival, rudeness, the family? The clash with Cornelia? Tommy’s swearing, playing? Sybil and her love? The valentine? John T., and the bond? The shops, paper boy, the fight and the accident, coming to help? The scrapbook? His father’s glove? The ball, Duffy seeing him? The doctor and his help? The experience of death? Duffy and Sybil – and Tommy? The letters to Fred, his learning, mellowing, becoming nicer? Crisis and death? The end of the war? His father?

6. Wendall and his parents, the effect of separation?

7. The grandfather, a good man, doctor, Christmas?

8. The contrast with his grandmother and her toughness?

9. Sybil and Tommy, the wedding, life, daring and death, Duffy and his story, the punch, seeking him out?

10. Duffy and the train?

11. John T., the injury, work, the ball, the girl, the family?

12. Life in the town, its ordinariness, shops, the mother and the children?

13. Wendall and his powers, lonely, in the woods – and the episode with the rabbits? His consciousness? His powers?

14. The war, the variety of views, Wendall’s book? Fred and the war, two the United States? The end of an era, beginning of a new world?