Grady (Michael Douglas) with James Leer (Tobey Maguire), the oddball student who becomes his protégé and salvation.

In fact, many of the memorable moments in Wonder Boys come when James’ glum face cracks into a lop-sided smile. “The flashes are the key,” Hanson, who reportedly picked Maguire from over 100 hopefuls, told Entertainment Weekly recently. “Because it’s the flashes in which Tobey lets us into James Leer.”

And Grady? Grady is a little bit more of an open book, because his failures and vulnerabilities are easier to relate to. “The film has a real poignancy,” says Robert Downey Jr, who makes an unforgettable entry, accompanied by a towering transvestite called Antonia Sloviak (Michael Cavadias), who also turns out to be remarkably sweet-natured. “You can experience that ‘wonder boys’ phenomenon regardless of what generation you’re in. It reminds me of people in the eighties who were living high off the hog in New York and L.A. They were at all the clubs and had all the new clothes and so on. Now, 10 years later, they’re still wearing the same stuff and still trying to ride on the same coat-tails, except that it’s just not working any more. They really haven’t done anything for 10 years. I think that’s where Grady and Crabtree are at. They’re both in crisis.”

And the wonder of Wonder Boys is that they both, in very different ways, resolve their crises, as does almost everyone else in the film. “Michael, Robert, Tobey - they’re all wonder boys at different phases,” says Hanson, referring to the characters rather than the actors. “The other thing about them, including Frances’ character, is that they are all yearning for love, family, human connection. And they’re all conflicted about it or afraid of it. “If you dissect their actions, they are not politically correct. But there is such an attitude of acceptance about them towards the human condition, that it gives the whole thing a warmth and makes you care. And that’s what makes it funny.”