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THE WONDER
Director: Sebastián Lelio Cast: Florence Pugh, Kila Lord Cassidy, Tom Burke, Niamh Algar, Toby Jones, Elaine Cassidy, Caolan Byrne, Dermot Crowley, Ciarán Hinds, Brian F. O'Byrne, David Wilmot, Ruth Bradley, Josie Walker MPAA
Rating: Running Time: 1:48 Release Date: 11/2/22 (limited); 11/16/22 (Netflix) |
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Review by Mark Dujsik | November 16, 2022 Director Sebastián Lelio opens The Wonder with an anachronistic, fourth-wall-demolishing prologue. It's a daring choice, with a narrator insisting that we accept and embrace the story that's to follow as real, even as the film itself proves that it's artificial and staged. The gimmick turns out to be an inconsequential and hollow one, but the story itself is worth taking seriously and with some serious thought. It's set in 1862, in and on the outskirts of a small village in Ireland. The country is still dealing with the fallout of the infamous famine that ended only a decade prior, although few speak directly of it or much of the death that resulted. A different kind of hunger figures into this tale, adapted from Emma Donoghue's novel by the author, the film's director, and Alice Birch. A young girl is observing a religious fast. Many in the village and who hear word of it beyond believe this is a miracle. After all, the girl has not eaten, according to herself and her family, for four months. When the nurse called in to witness the phenomenon and keep track of the girl's health hears this detail, she announces that such a thing is impossible. Still, it appears to be a fact by all accounts. The nurse is Elizabeth (Florence Pugh), called Lib by the few who are familiar with her and, at her insistence, Nurse Wright by her young patient. Lib is a woman devoted to medicine and certain of science. She's also impatient with those who would call such matters into question and, since she was one of the "Nightingales" of the Crimean War and a widow, those who would try to find something romantic in the misery of others. The case of Anna O'Donnell (Kila Lord Cassidy), the girl who appears to be starving herself yet refuses to die, is basically an insult to the foundation of her philosophy on medicine, the world, and life itself. She's the logical, rational mind at the center of this story, but given her capacity for understanding and her dedication to preserving life whenever it can be preserved, Lib is also the empathetic, wounded, and determined heart of it. Pugh is quite adept at embodying both of those roles for the story. This is a quiet, reserved performance, but it heightened by a sense of grief for what Lib has experienced and soon becomes certain she will have to endure. The challenge for Lib here, of course, is that no one believes her insistence that there's a physical and physiological answer to the mystery of Anna's survival without food. In this remote place, the only mysteries that matter of ones of faith—a faith that will somehow preserve life, will reward or punish the souls of the dead, and only requires the singular answer of believing without question. The film, then, serves simultaneously as a mystery, with Lib trying to uncover how the girl is living without eating, and as a debate, not only between science and religion, but also about the thin line between sincere belief and religious fervor. Anna's parents, Rosaleen (Elaine Cassidy) and Malachy (Caolan Byrne), and aunt Kitty (Niamh Algar), who stares at the camera at one point to re-introduce herself as the narrator whose gimmicky existence already feel unnecessary by that point, believe. The big question is to what extent they do, why they are so determined to maintain that belief, and how much they are willing to sacrifice to keep up the fact of it or the deception. There is an answer, which doesn't come as much as a surprise, and a solution to how the real or so-called miracle works, which turns this tale of intrinsic suffering into one of an even deeper kind. Soon after Lib's arrival and her insistence that only she and the nun (played by Josie Walker) who alternates observation shifts with her can come into contact with the girl, Anna's health quickly begins to deteriorate. The nurse wants to help, as is her duty, and against resistance, she eventually tries to enlist the aid of Will (Tom Burke), a skeptical but opportunistic journalist who originally came from this village. The family insists Anna will either recover or, if she doesn't, will be given her eternal reward for her devotion. The village doctor (played by Toby Jones), part of a committee with a majority of members (Among them are characters played by Ciarán Hinds and Brían F. O'Byrne) who do or want to believe in this "miracle," doesn't want any medical interference. It's his experiment to oversee to the end—one way or the seemingly inevitable other. On the surface and beneath this tale, then, is that debate between religion and science, the obvious disaster of relying exclusively on the former, and even some consideration for how a devotion to the latter can prevent someone from truly understanding other people. The screenplay creates some convincing, character-based logic to keep the plot going, such as how Lib comes to understand that calling this an act of fraud could ruin the girl, as long as her family, in the long run and how the family has multiple reasons—not matter how cruel—not to intervene. If we don't buy those motives, though, the film covers that doubt with its occasional reminders that this is only a story. It's unfortunate that Lelio doesn't fully trust the real and potential strength of this material enough to let it exist without that sporadic gimmick. Regardless, The Wonder tells this thorny story thoughtfully enough. Copyright © 2022 by Mark Dujsik. All rights reserved. |
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