This disneyfication of the Other with its cutesy storyline is an affront to Wolof culture, and notably never mentions the majority national religion (Allah forbid!) or former colonial administrative language (French). If you've ever lived or spent downtime with Senegalese people you'll cringe at every twist and turn, starting with the quietly "noble" intellectual Ibou who plays chess (egad!) and speaks in sapient aphorisms, to Khadi's dress style, of which the Nikes are just a further insult (brand salvation!). This is classic American redemption pap, and the casting choice of the left-handed Broderick underdog with his tiny eyes and sour little mouth is the perfect foil for an impossible tale: as represented here, Khadi is a gross travesty of everything Senegalese, even of the more westernized female subjects of the diaspora. And with his trite little guitar tune repeated three of four times, Ben confirms that he is a talentless misanthrope that probably deserves his fate as failed husband and fired proofreader. Just as things might pick up with the court case and Ibou's emergence from coma, the film stalls yet again, fails to gel: acting talent wasted, ideas wasted. Writing the entire story in reverse, focusing on Ibou, with Ben as a mere accessory, might just give rise to a movie worth watching, instead of this schmaltzy unauthentic dross of American self-worship that seeks "redemption" in every corner, in this case at the expense of anything Other. With the next presidential inauguration, the invocation should be "God Save America" (from itself).
Review of Wonderful World
