The very mention of John Holmes’ name conjures up many implications for porno aficionados. The reigning superstar in the 1970s adult film industry, Holmes has inspired numerous documentaries, tell-all books, an “E! True Hollywood Story” and a fictionalized account of his rise and fall — 1997’s dazzlingly infectious “Boogie Nights.”

Desperate for cash and drugs, he arranges the robbery of prominent, dangerous L.A. club owner Eddie Nash (playwright Eric Bogosian) for his makeshift friends, a move that consequently leads to their murders at the hands of Nash’s vicious goons.

In the aftermath and ensuing police investigation, Holmes and his 20-year-old girlfriend, Dawn (Kate Bosworth), hide out in a hotel room and attempt to make sense out of the chaotic event. Sharon Holmes (Lisa Kudrow), the star’s estranged wife, offers emotional assistance in the film’s solely effective subplot.

The director, James Cox, and his screenwriters structure their hard-boiled plot according to an overused “Rashomon”-style exposition, eliding over the pornography elements to focus on the criminal activity.

As would be expected, Holmes’ culpability fluctuates between each character’s differing accounts, but this labored story arc backfires, spurning any dramatic tension.

Cox dives head-on into the sordid proceedings with overzealous, music video renditions of Holmes’ indiscretions; the director obviously drew from other filmmakers’ techniques, most noticeably incorporating Martin Scorsese’s tracking camerawork and wall-to-wall rock soundtracks.

A few performances are noteworthy. Kilmer embodies Holmes like a curious onlooker, disengaged yet painfully aware of his impending doom; his work at times recalls early-70s Warren Beatty roles, brimming with nonchalance and passive intensity. Bosworth ably plays Holmes’ girlfriend, and Kudrow gives her best non-sitcom performance yet as his determinedly resigned wife, providing the film with brief moments of authentic gravitas. Her conversations with Holmes elicit Kilmer’s best moments as well.

Those emotionally fraught interactions, however, exacerbate the film’s pitfalls: lagging characterizations, an effusive narrative and Cox and company’s indifference over whether Holmes was an opportunistic thug, a misrepresented police informant, a sympathetic junkie or all three and more. “Wonderland” hardly measures up to the infamy of its lead’s celebrity.