DIRECTOR: Sebastián Lelio
CAST: Florence Pugh, Tom Burke, Kíla Lord Cassidy, Elaine Cassidy, Caolán Byrne, Niamh Algar, Toby Jones, Ciarán Hinds, Dermot Crowley, Brían F. O’Byrne, David Wilmot, Josie Walker
RUNNING TIME: 108 mins
CERTIFICATE: 15
BASICALLY…: In 1862 Ireland, an English nurse (Pugh) encounters a young girl (Cassidy) with an unusual claim…
NOW FOR THE REVIEW…
Chilean filmmaker Sebastián Lelio’s adaptation of Emma Donoghue’s novel The Wonder begins with a most unusual shot for a historical drama: the very set on which it is being filmed. A narrator – the identity of whom is revealed a bit later on – immediately reminds the viewer that they are watching a film, and that they are invited to engross themselves in the following story, before moving the camera into the very first scene. It’s a bold and rather bizarre way to start a film, by completely dismantling the traditional illusion of filmic storytelling, but as we soon find out in this story that we’ve been asked to immerse ourselves in, it transpires to be the most logical method for a tale that’s all about destabilising everything that we believe in.
There are very few fourth wall-breaking moments that happen afterwards, as the story begins properly. It’s 1862, and English nurse Lib (Florence Pugh) has just arrived in Ireland to participate in a study of an unusual local case: Anna (Kíla Lord Cassidy), the young daughter of a religious household, claims to not have eaten for the last four months, surviving only on what she describes as “manna from Heaven”. Lib’s task is to observe the young girl and determine exactly how she remains completely fine, the news of which has become a phenomenon throughout the land, with visitors regularly stopping by and paying respects to what they believe to be a Christian miracle. Lib, a strong believer in medical fact over religious phenomena, slowly forms a connection with the mysterious Anna as she gets to the root of her odd condition, while also mourning her own troubled past – but soon, a dark truth behind the circumstance forces the nurse to take swift action.
Lelio’s film is, in its own way, a bit of a wonder – which is to say that, fourth wall-breaking aside, its peculiar approach to an even more unusual story is oddly captivating, and manages to reel you in with an intriguing hook that becomes more and more devastating as it unravels. The script – credited to Lelio, Donoghue herself, and Pugh’s Lady Macbeth scribe Alice Birch – plays like a slow-burn thriller, sometimes even dabbling in psychological horror territory with gloomy, eternally overcast atmospheres that invoke a sense of dread around every corner. It is an unnerving film to watch, because you’re half-expecting a demon to suddenly show up for Pugh to exorcise out of this young girl, but Lelio’s calmly composed direction ensures that things never take quite the extreme turn, nor do they suggest anything less grim is actually happening beneath the surface. At all times, it’s made clear as day that this is not the kind of story that is necessarily going to end with a divine rejuvenation of the human spirit, but instead is one that carries a dark and disturbing reminder of how truly monstrous some people can reveal themselves to be, especially when using faith to justify their nefarious means.
While the story we see unfold in The Wonder is fictional, there is historical weight to the events that transpire. The main concept is based on the “fasting girl” phenomena, where young girls in Victorian society would stop eating and claim that they were personally guided to do so by their faith, which in an era that has seen hardships aplenty – keep in mind that Ireland had just been through the Great Famine by the time we begin this story – gained considerable attention from the devout religious, desperate to cling onto whatever they could justify as a full-blown miracle. This film takes these themes and expands them into a much deeper, more resonant study of a time where something so strange and unquestionably suspect in the sound mind was treated with the utmost seriousness, even by professional doctors. Moreover, it exposes a cynical sect of exploitation that surrounded such phenomena; Anna’s family all too openly welcome travelling passers-by who have come to see who they believe to be a miracle child, and barely hesitate when they offer monetary donations out of the goodness of their heart. Without going into too much detail, their accommodating nature eventually unmasks a truth that puts into question not just the validity of this young girl’s spiritualism, but also her overall wellbeing, something which Pugh’s nurse can only horrifyingly witness as her ward begins to suffer the grave consequences.
Going back to that meta opening, and its insistence that we are about to watch a story with characters who believe fully in what they are about to go through, the most prominent theme at the core of The Wonder is the nature of believing in stories. Throughout, there is little doubt that something is causing young Anna to forego food, to which every other character sticks a variant of the truth upon, whether it’s medical scepticism or full-blown Christian miracle, in separate attempts to logically explain it. As we all know in this day and age, when misinformation and fake news can easily spread amongst the masses, what is actually true ends up getting lost in the mix, drowned out by arguments over which false belief is more viable than the other; by opening on that disconnect between fiction and reality, The Wonder ambitiously applies this practise to the sacred art of filmic storytelling, and in doing so suggests that the nature of watching a dramatized piece of fiction with a three-act narrative and characters who carry said structure, is no different than coming across a suggestive headline from an untrusted news source. In both cases, your belief in what they are getting across is more paramount than whether or not it’s actually true, and as long as you’re invested in the story and its people – just as the characters in this very movie are dedicated to their own justification of what is actually happening with young Anna – the truth suddenly doesn’t matter, because you’re enjoying the fictional journey so much with its intriguing writing, compelling direction, and incredibly engrossing performances.
It’s an incredibly smart and impactful method of making such themes literally jump right off the set, in ways that make The Wonder an incredibly unique entry into 2022’s film canon. The movie itself is a fascinating slow-burn, but its ability to go beyond its means to convey its heavy and thought-provoking themes really makes it an unmissable experience.
SO, TO SUM UP…
The Wonder is a fascinating movie experience which, aside from being compellingly written, astutely made and very well performed, handles its thought-provoking themes with a unique intelligence that pushes things beyond expectations.
