The Wonder Review

Plot: 1862, 13 years after the Great Famine. An English Nightingale Nurse, Lib Wright is called to the Irish Midlands by a devout community to conduct a 15-day examination over one of their own. Anna O’Donnell is an 11-year-old girl who claims not to have eaten for four months, surviving miraculously on “manna from heaven”. As Anna’s health rapidly deteriorates, Lib is determined to unearth the truth, challenging the faith of a community that would prefer to stay believing.

Review: Despite taking a substantial role in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Florence Pugh’s cinematic career has continued to thrive in mature productions requiring the strongest acting talent. Not long ago, Pugh became the standout in Olivia Wilde’s critically maligned Don’t Worry Darling. This film underwhelmed me overall but survived, thanks to the presence of a strong lead actress. Sebastian Lelio’s The Wonder is a far better film overall but is another example of just how fantastic an actress Florence Pugh is. The Wonder is an interesting story wrapped in a very unusually paced film that some viewers may struggle with if they are not prepared to devote themselves to this challenging tale of faith versus fact.

Based on the novel by Emma Donoghue, The Wonder opens with the arrival of English nurse Lib Wright (Florence Pugh) in a small Irish village. Wright has been summoned by a council of village leaders, including a doctor (Toby Jones), a priest (Ciaran Hinds), a skeptic (Dermot Crowley), and a believer (Brian F. O’Byrne). They have hired Wright and a nun to watch over Anna O’Donnell (Kila Lord Cassidy), an eleven-year-old who has not eaten for four months. Wright, who saw combat in the Crimean War and has suffered her own personal tragedy, approaches the watch over Anna from a medical and scientific perspective, determined to prove the truth. As patient and nurse get to know one another, they form a tenuously connected bond as the truth remains unspoken between them. While the villagers and Anna’s family all believe she lives thanks to “manna from heaven,” Lib is determined to disprove their beliefs.

Despite the film running 103 minutes, The Wonder feels far longer. That is not to say that this film is boring, but it is presented in a way that lingers on the gray, overcast setting of Ireland, accompanied by an unsettling score by Matthew Herbert. So much of The Wonder is presented in long, static shots that stay uncomfortably long on Florence Pugh standing or sitting in ways that make this feel more like a horror movie than a period drama. Within the first twenty minutes of the movie are countless moments that made me curious as to the eventual end of this story and whether I would be prepared for a shocking plot twist. In all fairness, The Wonder is shocking and uncomfortable, and both are intentional decisions made by Sebastian Lelio to evoke a response from the audience as they experience this story.

What may catch audiences off-guard are the bookend sequences that start and end the film. The first shot shows a film set with a voice-over establishing that we are about to watch a story and are asked to believe in the one we are about to see. It is an intentional decision to tell us that what is about to unfold on our screen is not real but a tale for us to watch. Throughout the film, Lib Wright is repeatedly told the same thing: she is meant to watch young Anna rather than prove or disprove her ability to survive without food. As Anna grows weaker and no one takes action to save her, Lib Wright becomes increasingly frustrated and needs to do something, and we, as the audience, feel the same. Sebastian Lelio forces the viewer to be a passive observer of the story, something we often do when watching a film. But, when we are forced to do nothing, that act becomes far more challenging.

Sebastian Lelio has delivered intense portraits of women in his films A Fantastic Woman and Gloria Bell, and The Wonder is another great example. The male characters in this movie are all in positions of power and uphold their beliefs and laws with an iron fist, while the bulk of the true interactions is left to the women on screen. Aside from Tom Burke as reporter William Byrne, none of the men are remotely sympathetic to the young girl dying of starvation. Instead, Florence Pugh and young Kila Lord Cassidy command the screen with their subdued yet captivating performances. Niamh Algar is also a standout as Kitty, but Pugh and Cassidy are the highlights here. Pugh does an astounding job that few actresses could have achieved as she keeps this film centered and prevents it from turning into an overly trite melodrama or into a preachy and self-serious film judging blind faith.

The Wonder is difficult to watch because of the elegiac pace and unsettling tone. This film feels like a horror movie teetering on showing us a jumpscare or viscerally shocking image, and it never does. Sebastian Lelio directs this movie in an unconventional manner that shifts back into conventional storytelling as the third act begins but is saved by Florence Pugh’s outstanding performance. The Wonder is a perfect example of a film that is good but features a performance that is exceptional. This movie forces the viewer to watch, an act many of us take for granted when a film plays on our screen until we are expected to do nothing else. This is a movie that many viewers may turn off after the first thirty minutes or so, but it will be a success for those willing to stay vigilant until the end.

The Wonder

GOOD

7