Recent trends in film narrative have witnessed the proliferation of multiple 'petite' narratives involving a series of inter-related characters who are all inter-connected in some way: pioneered by "Short Cuts" and followed by the likes of "Pulp Fiction", "Happiness", and the more recent "Magnolia". In their deliberate and manifest fragmentation, they immediately seem to offer a schizophrenic view of society and the lives depicted within it. Yet to interpret these films as such and only that would be to misunderstand the overall logic of these films. In their very diversity, they seem to offer an overall 'world view', whether it be clear-cut or oblique, in which the characters in these films are all part of the same condition.<br /><br />Whether damning (as in "Happiness") or redemptive (as in "Magnolia"), their world view is ever-present. It is with "Wonderland" that we have a film which plays with this tension, I think, more skillfully than the aforementioned films. The film is primarily about the lives of three sisters (and their friends, partners, family, etc.) living in London, who are all disparate in terms of their personalities and lifestyles. Winterbottom's message, intimated by the title, is to show that they are all 'Alices in Wonderland'. It is about coming to terms with this predicament and expressing their emotions about it, that the films ably deals with.<br /><br />Shooting his film on location with a shaky hand-held camera in brutally realist hues, Winterbottom reveals a London full of life - a background sharply contrasted by the three women pushed against it, highlighting their increasing loneliness and alienation, whether they accept it or not. Like "Magnolia", the first half of the film traces their predicament (each in powerfully unique ways) as it slowly reaches towards a discernible 'crisis point' in which these sisters are forced to accept fate.<br /><br />Not wanting to laud the film too much on the basis of these humanist ideals, one must understand it with the notion of humanism in mind as this is the level at which it works best. Unlike "Happiness" in which Solondz wallows in the depravity of social misfits, Winterbottom valiantly offers a redemptive glimpse of humankind, in which despite all adversity, there is still hope yet.