The Wonder review: Florence Pugh seeks miracles in weird Netflix thriller

at the moment of opening Netflix thrillers by Sebastián Leilo wonder, a female voice narrates and asks the viewer to remember that everyone in this story came from a place of serious conviction. Reveals the plywood and metal construction of the movie set. The voice tells us to believe, but the visual undermines the suspension of disbelief with a peak behind the curtain. It’s also discouraging to get involved in it. Why did Leiro throw such a stumbling block in his path?

midsommar When don’t worry darling Star Florence Pugh leads wonder Mrs. Elizabeth “Lib” Wright, a British nurse who served in the Crimean War. In Ireland, 1862, Anna, an Irish girl who has eaten nothing since her eleventh birthday four months earlier, impartial and professional to the case of her O’Donnell (Kira Lord her Cassidy). She was hired to bring perspective. When she arrives in the Irish Midlands, Liv is shocked to learn that the town council has hired a second observer: she is a nun named Sister Michael (Josie Walker), and she is a medical doctor. not trained. When Liv asked her why, the innkeeper’s wife shrugged her shoulders and said, “Welcome to Ireland.”

For two weeks, Liv makes sure Anna has not eaten for eight hours a day and measures her vitals to document her health. On her first encounter, Anna told Liv that she didn’t need food because she lived on “she’s manna from heaven.” And when Liv begins to control the experiment to get scientific results, Anna’s health deteriorates rapidly and she may be dying. Kitty, Anna’s devout Catholic mother O’Donnell (Niamh Algar) resents Rib’s attempts to implant science into the invasion, especially the mysteries of faith. She seems to hate her outsiders so much, and seems willing to sacrifice her daughter to protect her village’s secrets.

Figuring out what “manna from heaven” is enthralling the first half of the film, which plays like a mystery of the times. Liv is a hard donkey with a heart of gold and a secret addiction to what is presumed to be morphine syrup, trapping her in the role of a “tortured detective” in the case of a girl who doesn’t die without eating. Lib needs Anna to be fake to strengthen her belief in science. But the more time she spends with the girl, the more she likes this troubled preteen mystic and becomes more invested in keeping her girl alive.

Newspaper journalist Will Byrne (Tom Burke), a local boy returning to town to report the incident, is neither sympathetic nor tactful. Browsing completed. Meanwhile, his Dr. McBrearty (Toby Jones), the district doctor who brought Lib to Ireland, is backtracking from a place of miracles and looking to use science to support his faith, not disprove it. Dr. McBrearty, like the rest of Ireland, is in dire need of a miracle.

wonder Set in a world ten years after the Great Famine, the specter of starving souls forms the haunting backdrop to Anna’s spontaneous starvation. Tragedy affected everyone in this story. Liv claims he doesn’t have kids, but he carries around a pair of knitted baby booties. Meanwhile, Anna’s dead brother is a constant, unseen presence in her hospital room. All the other characters are here and now devoting their lives to helping others.

Photo: Aidan Monaghan/Netflix

Most of them are undeveloped in the script (to be fair they could be aired more extensively in the Emma Donoghue novel this movie is adapted from), but there are nuggets of ideas. wonder Like many breadcrumbs, for history buffs to follow. anorexia mirabilis, Catholic martyrdom, and the development of modern nursing, all of which are fascinating topics to study. There’s also an interesting parallel between the all-male town council unwilling to listen to Liv about what’s best for Anna and modern day politicians who reject women’s knowledge of their bodies in pursuit of control. There’s a point. The idea of ​​patriarchal faith as misogynistic conquest is the film’s scariest idea, and also the most half-baked idea because it’s surprisingly relevant to the world of 2022.

Despite the director’s bizarre attempts to undermine the narrative, the film’s location shots cast an atmospheric spell with images of rolling hills, purple heather, green moss and rippling brown grass. chanting. Pugh is a veteran of costume his drama through projects such as; lady macbeth and Greta Gerwig little woman, which carries the film on her character’s strong back. But 13-year-old Cassidy stands out here as Anna, a vulnerable girl who isn’t entirely reluctant, as a living symbol of adult repentance for sins.

Finally, there’s a psychological explanation for what’s happening to Anna.The ambiguity of the script — with Leilo lady macbeth Screenwriter Alice Burch — turns from an asset to a liability in the second half as thematic threads fly and burn out with no plot points to sustain them. The characters’ already opaque psychology takes a frustrating turn, and the film’s fourth-wall-breaking chain of events overstates some points and ignores others. Ribbing against the brick wall of superstition is an important part of the story, but at some point, wonder It crosses the line between eerie ambiguity and aimless struggle.

wonder Currently streaming on Netflix.