Wondrous Oblivion – 2004 | 106 mins | Comedy, Drama | Colour

Plot Synopsis

Uplifting yet overly simplistic comedy tale of West Indian immigrants in 1960s England discovering attitudes are anything but cricket in writer-director Paul Morrison’s look back at the small-minded prejudices of the time. Contrived and occasionally sentimental, Wondrous Oblivion is doubtless hoping to replicate the youngster obsessed by sport contends with racism in the same wistful manner as Bend It Like Beckham.

Eleven year old David Wiseman (Sam Smith) is passionate about cricket but no good at it. He has all the kit but none of the skill, and he’s a laughing stock at school. So when a Jamaican family move in next door and build a cricket net in the back garden, David is in seventh heaven. David is soon receiving coaching from the father of the family, Dennis (Delroy Lindo), who also attracts the boy’s repressed mother Ruth (Emily Woof).

But this is a poor South London suburb in the 1960s, and when the neighbours start to make life difficult for the new arrivals, David’s Jewish family is caught in the middle, and the wide-eyed innocent has to choose between fitting in and standing up for his newfound friends whose warmth and generosity have turned his world upside down.