Wonder English Movie

Room(2015) fame Jacob Tremblay does justice to a well-deserved lead role in his latest film, Wonder, which is otherwise anything but wonderful. Dec 8, 2017 By Vighnesh Menon

August Pullman(Tremblay), a 10-year-old boy born with a deformed face, has to face the outside world that invariably looks at him differently. But he has an ever-loving, supportive family, and will be joined by a growing group of understanding friends at school, to help him overcome his fears and insecurities. This is a film about nice people who will remain nice, politically correct and non-judgmental, from Act 1 to Act 3, making them all look too good to be true. It is this fakeness and a firmly binary view on humanity that pulls Wonder down, despite its earnest efforts.

Boy wonder Tremblay flies high with another superlative performance here. Firstly, he has to emote so much under heavy make-up. Secondly, he stars opposite high-profile stars like Julia Roberts and Owen Wilson and yet turns out to be the best thing about the film. This could also partly and ironically, be the fault of the screenplay, for producing few meaty roles in its character-oriented drama. Wilson, as the father, is missing in action for most part, playing the provider of the family but only providing one-liners all the time, instead. Roberts, as his wife, gets a marginally better deal, in a performance as Oscar-bait as the film's general tone.

The

narrative structure, of course, lacks depth but is not afraid of experimentation, all said and done. Although its results are inconsistent, the idea to categorically follow the reasoning behind as many as three supporting characters, namely Via(Izabella Vidovic), Jack(Noah Hype) and Miranda(Danielle Rose Russell), is outlandish and daring when in full flow. This is not the first time it is being done, but is the only thing close to novelty in a film that is creatively bankrupt.

Yes, Wonder brims with crowd-pleasing and tear-jerking scenes. Unfortunately, even that cannot cloak how decidedly unadventurous its sensibilities are in the first place.