You'll believe you clicked on the wrong movie when you watch The Wonder on Netflix. Instead of beginning in Ireland's boglands as shown in the trailer, the captivating period drama starring Florence Pugh instead starts in the harsh lighting of a studio.
Niamh Algar's voice, which is not physically present, will reassure you that this is The Wonder. "The individuals you are about to meet, the characters, believe in their stories with wholehearted devotion," the voice says.
It's a strange beginning that has already divided critics. The movie is an adaptation of Emma Donoghue's 2016 novel of the same name, which was helmed by Sebastián Lelio and written by Alice Birch (renowned for her work on Succession and Normal People). It should be noted that nothing in Donoghue's novel particularly calls for this narrative structure. The movie concludes in the same desolate location, but Leilo and Birch have nonetheless taken a shine to it. Their odd choice's motivations gradually but strongly come across throughout the course of the film.
Eventually, the camera zooms in on a gloomy passenger ship where Pugh's Lib Wright is seated. It is the year 1862. To confirm a miracle, an English nurse named Lib is dispatched across the ocean to Ireland. Anna O'Donnell, an 11-year-old girl played by Kla Lord Cassidy, has gone four months without eating. Lib is merely there to record what she hears and sees. She is not there to provide a prognosis. The men of the hamlet (played in part by Toby Jones, Brian F. O'Byrne, and Ciarán Hinds) are there to discuss faith against science. Has magnetism fostered Anna in any way? Photosynthesis? Smell molecules? Or "manna from heaven," as she says?
The story doesn't really care if Anna really did starve herself to death. It's also not that difficult to speculate. Instead, The Wonder depends on the mysterious discomfort of being lured into another person's most sinister secret. Lib's suspicions deepen as she approaches the girl. Furthermore, the hunger has left such a deep scar on this area that even Tom Burke, the lovely journalist who shows up to write about Anna, conceals a sombre connection to it.
Pugh is framed by the director of photography Ari Wegner as a tiny mouse scurrying across the rafters, easily swallowed by the shadows. While this is happening, Matthew Herbert's score, which has an abruptly modern tone but works well. It hums along below like a digestive system of levers and gears.
The movie may criticise religious hypocrisy, especially the haste with which goals replace people's lives. Yet, it does so without demonising individuals who use religion as a means of survival. Lib, a Crimean War veteran, views it as a wonderful honour to spend time with individuals who are dying.
Although Pugh is quite comfortable in this kind of work, its familiarity doesn't make it any less stunning. Lib has her own evening ritual to ease the pain of a lost child. Despite assiduously devoting herself to the real world of medicine. Every night, she pricks her finger like artificial stigmata and passes out from the opium.
The baffling beginning of The Wonder starts to make sense; it serves as a reminder that the only facts that exist are those we create ourselves.
Performance | 4.5/5 |
Enjoyment | 4.2/5 |
Overall Rating | 4.3/5 |