Watch The Wonder on Netflix // Buy the book (paid link)
Written by: Emma Donoghue and Sebastián Lelio and Alice Birch (written by), Emma Donoghue (based on the book by)
Directed by: Sebastián Lelio
Starring: Florence Pugh, Tom Burke, Kíla Lord Cassidy, Niamh Algar, Toby Jones, Ciarán Hinds
Rated: R
Watch the trailer
Plot
Haunted by her past, a nurse travels from England to a remote Irish village in 1862 to investigate a young girl's supposedly miraculous fast.
Verdict
Great performances and solid directing are highlights, but the story is a bit light. I wish this went farther with the science versus faith aspect to drive tension. There's an angle of what this means versus what it is, but the movie never gets into that. This could explore complex morality, but instead the movie wants this to be a character drama. The premise is solid, but it isn't developed enough.
It depends.
Review
The way this begins is so odd. It's voice over as we see the sets for the movie and are told the characters believe the events we're about to see. It's very strange to point out the artifice of this movie when it's asking us to believe a wild story. That alone made me very skeptical of the story this movie portrays.
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| Florence Pugh plays Nurse Lib |
The premise is interesting. It's 1899 and Nurse Lib (Florence Pugh) is called in to observe Anna (Kíla Lord Cassidy) who hasn't and won't eat. Lib will observe this girl during the day while a nun will observe her at night. This seemed like it was going to setup a science versus faith scenario, but the movie avoids that altogether. Is this a medical anomaly or something religious? I wasn't sure if the town leaders wanted Lib to prove or disprove what was occurring. Is Anna legitimate or not? It certainly seems like a parlor trick, and that's the intrigue. Can this movie make me believe?
Lib truly cares for her patient, but is getting resistance from everyone. Lib first wants to determine if Anna truly isn't eating, but being there only half the time I wasn't sure what was occurring at night. The nun may want this to be true to further her cause, but that tension is avoided, unfortunately.
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| Kíla Lord Cassidy plays Anna |
We do get answers as Lib struggles with what she things is right and what Anna wants. Lib wants to help a patient, but is sternly reminded she was tasked only with observing.
I like the concept, but I wanted more from the ending. I assume the town wants this miracle as an attraction and symbol. I can only guess as the movie doesn't examine that. Maybe it doesn't need to as the crux of the movie is the relationship between nurse and patient, but the movie seems long for what actually happens which isn't much. The nurse hatches a plan at the end, but it isn't much more than semantics. I wanted a bigger gesture, or at least more than what I got.
Just as the first scene intentionally takes us out of the reality the narrative creates, so does the ending. The movie itself, like the story it depicts, is providing a show. They are both something that appear to be a ruse.
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