He is a boy wonder long past his sell-by date, a 50-ish English professor named Grady Tripp who wrote a good novel seven years ago, and now, everyone believes, has writer's block. It is his best performance in years, muted, gentle and wondering. Michael Douglas plays a character like that.
It is accurate, not because it captures intellectual debate or campus politics, but because it knows two things: (1) Students come and go, but the faculty actually lives there, and (2) many faculty members stay stuck in graduate-student mode for decades. 'Wonder Boys' is the most accurate movie about campus life that I can remember.
