by Robert Bouffard, Editor
Director Sebastián Lelio has a great eye for religious structures and how they make us behave in modern society. His 2017 film, Disobedience, takes an honest look at an Orthodox Jewish woman with same-sex attractions, and his latest film, The Wonder, follows a British nurse, Lib (Florence Pugh), in a devoutly Catholic Irish village in 1860s Ireland. Lib is appointed by a local council to watch an 11-year-old girl, Anna (Kíla Lord Cassidy), whose family claims she hasn’t eaten anything for the past four months.
This film, based on the novel of the same name, has an instantly fascinating presence. Why isn’t this girl eating? How is she surviving without food? Is she somehow, secretly eating? There are a lot of directions it could go — supernatural, witchcraft, mystery, thriller — and having not read the book, I was on board. Lelio is an interesting filmmaker, Pugh is always a draw, and the story is intriguing enough to press play on Netflix.
But no matter your expectations, The Wonder will likely begin on a note you are not prepared for. Instead of opening on Lib’s journey from England to Ireland, we’re first shown the actual set they filmed the movie on. This isn’t The Rehearsal (actually, it might be; far be it from me to predict what stunt Nathan Fielder will pull next), but it does revel in its own kind of meta commentary. It’s a story about stories — specifically, those we tell ourselves to feel better about things we’ve done, or to escape from everyday life. So while initially jarring, welcoming you into the storytelling process is actually a uniquely surprising way to begin the film.
The framing device leaves you with an off-kilter feeling from the start. And the eerie, atmospheric score from Matthew Herbert doesn’t let that feeling escape you for the rest of the film. Because even as Lib and Anna develop a wholesome kind of relationship that Anna doesn’t seem to have with anyone else, there are always her family, the town, outsiders, and the council ready to stop anything truly good for her to take hold. We slowly learn, from Lib’s perspective, that nearly no one is to be trusted.
Lelio’s direction skews inconsistent as it goes along, and pesky pacing issues start to rear their head, but Pugh, unsurprisingly, is the glue that holds this movie together. Since she broke onto the scene, she hasn’t given a bad performance, and this one plays to her strengths of being a character who’s in a situation that’s not quite right. She started this archetype with Lady Macbeth, officially burst onto the scene with Midsommar, showed that she can be the best part of a bad movie with Don’t Worry Darling, and reconfirmed her place as one of the best Hollywood has to offer with The Wonder. This performance most closely reflects Lady Macbeth, thanks to its quiet reservedness, but with the ability to pack an emotional and narrative punch as a result of Pugh’s masterful control over her own face. It’s pretty clear that if you can’t get into the story, you’ll at least be able to appreciate the performance.
But the story is one worth thinking and ruminating about nonetheless. There are cutting religious themes worked into every scene, and the ultimate resolution makes The Wonder a poignant, yet gently reassuring film.
Score: 7/10
The Wonder is currently streaming on Netflix
You can follow Robert Bouffard on Twitter and Letterboxd