THE WONDER: Sebastian Lelio's Film Is Aptly Named

 

I always say a movie cannot be compared to the novel it was based on and that is a GOOD thing. Many complain, but the reality is the two things are, and must be, entirely different entities. It is literally impossible for them to be otherwise. It is therefore that rare thing - for me - when novel and film affect me exactly the same, which is what happened for me with Emma Donoghue's novel Room and the film based upon it.  

I've wanted to read Donoghue's The Wonder for some time, but still have not gotten around to it, so when I saw the film was on Netflix I was conflicted if I should wait, or just hit "play."  I opted for the latter, and having just moments ago finished watching it, believe I made the right decision.  

Sebastian Lelio, using the screenplay adapted by Donoghue herself, along with Alice Birch goes directly to the spirit of the movie in a way that is extraordinary and the result is a film that is . . . extraordinary.

Without giving anything away, Lelio uses an ingenious framing device for his movie that transcends what is true and what is not true, that, and that in its way makes irrelevant arguments between what is right and wrong. None of this comes easy, nor is it an easy film to watch.

A decade after the Great Irish Famine, a small village believes they have a saint on their hands in the form of a young girl who has refused to eat for four months, yet seems relatively healthy. "She is a wonder," we are told by one of the many visitors to her home to witness the miracle child themselves. Skeptical, a local committee hires an English nurse to observe young Anna to either prove or disprove the claims the faithful believe to be true.  

As nurse Elizabeth "Lib" Wright, Florence Pugh gives a performance of towering strength, hiding, for as long as she can, Mrs. Wright's insecurities and vulnerabilities as she tries to pit science against the kind of blind faith that helps give religion a bad name.  Treated poorly, and all but shunned by the religious zealotry who are longing for a miracle, she slowly unravels the truths behind the tale of the girl who lives on nothing but "Manna from Heaven."  

In an equally impressive performance, Kila Lord Cassidy imbues in Anna a sense of purity that seems both other wordly wise, yet frustrating in her simplicity and religious fervor. She is constantly praying, speaking of heaven and hell and the precious blood of Jesus. But her earnestness and belief strikes something in the skeptical nurse.  At this I felt there was more than a faint similarity between Donoghue's story and John Pielmeier's  1979 play Agnes of God, though the stories themselves have little in common. 

While the story is centered on the relationship between nurse and patient - observer and observee, this is a large ensemble piece creating Anna's family and community, and without singling any of them out here, there is not a weak performance among them.

Lelio's direction, is always exquisite and often remarkable, in the way his cameras seem to capture lighting, color and halo effects in a scene that seem almost inspired by the paintings of Rembrandt or other of the Dutch Masters.  Everything is perfectly placed, nothing appears to be random or extraneous . . . all essential, visual elements serving to point up the story in a most revealing manner. 

The score by Matthew Herbert is perfect an aural match highlighting everything we see or think we see.  (in 2010 Herbert famously shocked the music world with his "recomposition" of the Mathler 10th for Deutsche Grammophon).  The Wonder serves not only for the title of this film, it's also an apt description of Lelio's work.