The Wonder (M, 108mins) Directed by Sebastian Lelio *****
While Don’t Worry Darling has been dominating the headlines, this is the Florence Pugh movie you need to see.
The Little Women and Lady Macbeth star is simply stunning as mid-19th Century English nurse Elizabeth Wright, called over to Ireland to “observe” young Anna O’Donnell (Kila Lord Cassidy).
Querying why she will be joined in her two-week task by a nun, she’s given the pithy response of “Welcome to Ireland”. Informed that they will undertake their vigils and write reports to an overseeing committee separately – with no conferring allowed – Elizabeth opines that “no one has told me what is precisely wrong with the girl”.
“Anna O’Donnell doesn’t eat.”
ITN
Florence Pugh stars in Netflix’s new period drama ‘The Wonder’, which had its European premiere at last month’s BFI London Film Festival 2022.
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Her family’s claim that she has only lived on “manna from heaven” since her 11th birthday four months ago has attracted a steady stream of “gawkers and sightseers” to the village and well-paying (to the poor) visitors to the O’Donnells’ isolated family home, all eager to meet the “miracle”.
Elizabeth though is far more sceptical, especially after discovering the girl isn’t even bedridden. While the local doctor (Toby Jones) speculates that perhaps she’s found a way to convert sunlight into energy, Elizabeth thinks something far more deceitful and nefarious is playing out. But, as she strives to unlock the mystery, she’s hounded by a newspaper reporter (Tom Burke) with a personal motivation for finding out the truth and struggling to escape her own demons caused by a traumatic experience that still feels very fresh.
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Florence Pugh plays Elizabeth Wright in The Wonder.
Based on the 2016 novel of the same name by Room’s Irish-Canadian author Emma Donoghue, who also serves as one of the three screenwriters alongside Chilean director Sebastian Lelio (Disobedience, Gloria Bell) and Normal People and Lady Macbeth adapter Alice Birch, The Wonder is an engrossing, evocative and emotion-filled watch.
My favourite film of the 30 I saw at September’s Toronto International Film Festival, it features top-notch production and costume design, atmospheric and haunting cinematography by The Power of the Dog’s Ari Wegner (making great use of windswept barren landscapes and candlelit rooms) and a fabulous ensemble that also includes Ciaran Hinds, Dermot Crowley, Elaine Cassidy and Niamh Algar.
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Featuring terrific performances from Pugh and Kila Lord Cassidy, The Wonder is an engrossing, evocative and emotion-filled watch.
Some may bridle at Lelio’s initial stage-set frame tale (a la Hagai Levi’s 2021 Scenes From a Marriage remake), but I personally found it gave the story just that little extra resonance, particularly thanks to narrator Algar’s observation that: “The people you are about to meet, the characters, believe in their story with complete devotion.” It’s a theme that underpins The Wonder, right up until its final, deeply satisfying frames.
But for all those terrific elements, and a fine turn from young Cassidy, it’s Pugh who is the real Wonder here.
Yes there are similarities between her increasingly troubled mid-20th-century “happy housewife” Alice and independent, strong-minded 1860s health professional Elizabeth in their determination to uncover the truth and willingness to butt heads with authority, but Pugh infuses them both with distinct emotional truths and grounds them with a seemingly effortless intensity that reminds you of another English actor some 20 years her senior. Yes, this is Pugh at her most Winslet-y.
It’s a performance that, if there’s any justice, should certainly put her in the frame for plenty of accolades during the upcoming awards season.
After screening in select cinemas from November 3, The Wonder will debut on Netflix on November 16.
