Florence Pugh, you had a swing and a miss in your first outing of 2022. Nah, that’s harsh, because although I didn’t like the movie, Pugh’s performance was still admirable in Don’t Worry Darling. But The Wonder sees Pugh play an English nurse in mid-1800s Ireland, sent to gather detail on a girl who has reportedly maintained her health after refraining from eating for around four months. The townsmen are split on whether young Anna O’Donnell (Kila Lord Cassidy) is a miracle or a pawn in a larger scheme of foul play. Nurse Elizabeth ‘Lib’ Wright (Florence Pugh) is a no-nonsense empirical investigator, and butts heads with the religious leanings on the other side of the assignment. But, pretty soon, Anna begins to fail, and Nurse Wright might prove her biggest ally.
Well, that was an unusual start to the movie, wasn’t it? It piqued my interest. Since the movie starts on a sound stage, with a voiceover confirming that this is indeed a movie, I was looking more inquisitively at the set than I would’ve normally done if the movie had started traditionally. But with such an engaging premise, I’m not sure this movie needed the extra gimmick, or ended up incorporating the suggestion that ‘we all need stories’ as well as it could. The Wonder offers an eerie situation, best captured in scenes with a score, and as I’ve confessed before, I’ve stayed away from supernatural thrillers most of my life, I’ve regrettably never seen The Exorcist, and so I was tentatively enthusiastic by this premise’s possibilities. It’s a movie with a contemplative start, which is a nice way of saying slow, but it felt familiar in that, in time, it would ramp up before long, perhaps reaching great heights – with the same trajectory that Nope has, from earlier this year. I was intrigued by the interesting quagmire Nurse Wright has to navigate – if she proves Anna is being fed, then the family could be excommunicated for their lies, and if they don’t confess, the girl could die. But similarly, if Lib doesn’t ascertain the truth, she’s not doing her job properly, and maintaining a lie would be equally misleading.
The Wonder can boast great cinematography and impeccable shot selection. I believe director Sebastian Lelio is telling his story with near the best tools in his arsenal, and has produced a beautiful looking film. But perhaps I’m missing the big picture. When we find out the truth behind Anna’s food intake, it makes the movie’s journey and position on ‘storytelling’ one of the most pretentious things I’ve ever seen! Anna’s motivation for the fast rivals some of the most salacious moments in The Bill, from when it became a soap, and I certainly wasn’t expecting a reveal like that at all. Watching this little girl starve to death is horrible, and whilst I empathised with Nurse Wright’s decision, she is quite clearly ‘paid to watch’, and it’s never her fault that Anna refuses to eat, so I couldn’t escape a sticky sense of her getting involved in another people’s culture, literally brainwashing Anna, and forcing her beliefs on her, even though it led her to survive. But I suppose she is the one who separates mother and child, and I don’t know how easily she could’ve reversed that condition if taken the chance. But there’s more at play with The Wonder – Lib is rudderless without religion in her life after the passing of her own child, whilst the O’Donnell family are focused in dealing with their tragedies by the grace of God – but that’s not the main purpose of this story, I don’t think. Could it be tied to the fact a British citizen is evaluating the Irish in starvation as they die, as was the case in 1845-1849 with the Great Famine, just prior to this movie’s setting – but famine hasn’t been a prominent issue in the western psyche for a very long time, so surely that can’t be the point. Admittedly, Europe has a longer lens on history than I might have in Australia though, and I wonder how the story resonates on a personal level with the Irish and the English.
And then there’s men. This revelation has only come to me in writing about The Wonder, but it is them, the councilmen of his town, who have investigated Anna O’Donnell and provided the ‘tool’ in Nurse Wright to separate daughter from family, ruining their religious method and internal salvation. Those cheeky XY chromosome carriers just want to know, have got to know, and force the issue every time, eh? When The Wonder ended, my conclusion was that it was horrible to watch, and without reason or revelation to be worthwhile, but I did feel like I was missing something that I may’ve just unlocked, and I do see some value in The Wonder suddenly. But in this respect, it’s not so different to Don’t Worry Darling in story then, telling about male control from female perspectives, although this wields better execution. I’m sensing a possibility of The Power of the Dog level praise for The Wonder, but I’m yet to ‘confer’ with fellow critics 😂
There’s no doubt that Florence Pugh is going to be around for a number of years, as her talents are alluring again, but I’d like to value her fine acting in more enjoyable movies. The Wonder is still a hard watch – if it’s nominated for Best Picture, I would understand though, but it’s not for me.
2.5
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