Wonder Boys

Graduating gracefully and comically into a comfortable, frumpy middle-aged role, Michael Douglas stars here as a once-bohemian Pittsburgh professor whose life goes into full tilt over one messy weekend. For starters, his oddest, most introverted student (Tobey Maguire) has opened up to him in a burst of creativity run amok. In addition, his second novel is so overdue that his editor (Robert Downey Jr.) has taken to camping out on his couch until he coughs up a rough draft; he's impregnated the college chancellor (Frances McDormand); and a student (Katie Holmes) who rents a room from him has become a tempting flirt. Then there's the dead dog, the stolen car and the transvestite. Directed with great little touches of winking absurdity by Curtis Hanson (L.A. Confidential), Wonder Boys is a buoyant, droll comic collision of peculiarly congruous characters, well-acted by a great cast that's really on its game. Recommended. (R. Blackwelder)