Two people live unlucky in love in Boston: Erin, whose activist boyfriend Sean has just walked out on their relationship to help a Native American tribe fight off a land development deal, and Alan, a plumber struggling to pay off family obligations while pursuing a career as a marine biologist. Both deal with personal and professional problems and stumble through relationships, continually crossing one another's paths without ever truly meeting and realizing how perfect they are for one another. Time and time again one almost catches the other's eye, but circumstances intervene. After a series of ups and downs both of their budding relationships with others crash and burn, just in time for a chance meeting on the MBTA train (the Blue Line) heading to Wonderland station in Revere, Massachusetts, on the outskirts of Boston.[3]
The film, which cost $1 million to make,[1] was an audience favorite at the Sundance Film Festival in 1998. A bidding war among studio distributors resulted in Miramax Films paying $6 million for the film's North American distribution rights.[4] The film grossed $3.3 million during its theatrical release.[1]
On review aggregatorRotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of 73%, based on 45 reviews, and an average rating of 6.8/10. The website's critical consensus reads, "Endearing performances create characters you care about".[6] On Metacritic, the film has a score of 71 out of a 100 based on reviews from 19 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews".[7]
Rita Kempley of The Washington Post wrote: "It's the individual characters, so carefully crafted, who count, as opposed to a tidy conclusion".[8]Variety's Todd McCarthy wrote that Next Stop Wonderland is "Low on plot but high on charm and personality", adding that "[it']s a sly, hand-crafted indie that is very alive and attentive to its characters' feelings and foibles".[3]Stephen Holden of The New York Times said that "Next Stop Wonderland isn't really much more than a beautifully acted, finely edited sitcom, but it creates and sustains an intelligent, seriocomic mood better than any recent film about the urban single life".[9]
