by Aubrey Sinclair
Contributor, The University Times
For a movie centered around emptiness, “The Wonder,” based on a novel by Emma Donoghue of the same name, serves up a heaping plate of fabulous storytelling and leaves us with something to chew on. Director Sebastián Lelio opens the film in a slow pan across a modern sound stage before settling on actor Niamh Algar, who invites us to remember that this 2022 Netflix psychological drama we are about to embark on is a work of fiction, but that we should believe in it with all of our hearts as the characters do.
The plot deposits us into the Irish Midlands of 1862, a land and people still reeling from the aftermath of The Great Famine. English nurse Lib Wright – masterfully played by Florence Pugh – arrives before a panel of village elders who have hired her and catholic nun Sister Michael to observe Anna, a young girl who allegedly has not eaten in four months and is sustained only by “manna from Heaven.” The panel insists that the girl may eat at her choosing but may not be force-fed even in the case of mortal danger. The juxtaposition of a nurse and a nun mirrors the oppositional beliefs of the village elders: reason vs. emotion; science vs. spirituality; facts vs. faith. Though these sides seem diametrically opposed, the fact that these men are willing to let a girl die in order to protect their personal beliefs weaves a throughline through the group and reveals the heart of the film: Beliefs can be dangerous. From this point on, “The Wonder” evolves into a mystery which escalates into unexpected and dangerous territory that threatens to take a young girl’s life.
The emptiness present in each of the characters’ stories are emphatically reflected in the broad and barren pastoral landscape of the Irish Midlands, the bare and minimal sets, and even the movie’s score which for much of the film is hauntingly silent. This movie has a stacked cast, and even the smallest roles shine – but none brighter than Anna played by Kíla Lord Cassidy, and Florence Pugh who never fails to deliver an electrifying performance. Don’t miss this wonder-full film before it leaves Netflix.
