Tale that’s a little Wonder
WONDER
Starring: Jacob Tremblay, Julia Roberts, Owen Wilson It’s nice to be important but it’s important to be nice.
THERE’S a quote by late, great film critic Roger Ebert that I’m sure I’ve used once or twice in the past.
It’s about how he saw motion pictures as “a machine that generates empathy”.
I was thinking about that quote during Wonder, which initially seemed to me designed to do nothing but generate empathy.
Telling a story appeared to be taking second place to prompting warm, fuzzy feelings about its likeable, big-hearted cast of characters. But while it may have taken a moment or two, Wonder soon found its footing.
Director and coscreen writer Stephen Chbosky ( The Perks of Being a Wallflower) finds a way to make this adaptation of R.J. Palacio’s novel genuinely heartfelt and moving without resorting to manipulation.
Well, not too much manipulation.
Maybe a little is to be expected.
Wonder follows 10-year-old August “Auggie” Pullman (Jacob Tremblay) through his first year at school after years of being taught at home by his mum Isabel (Julia Roberts).
A genetic abnormality has seen Auggie undergo medical treatment, including facial surgery, since he was little.
And while he’s your typical kid in every way, with an active imagination and an appreciation for Star Wars, he’s also shy enough about his face to occasionally cover it up with an astronaut’s helmet — which makes it all the more difficult for Isabel and her husband Nate (Owen Wilson) to decide it’s time for Auggie to leave the nest, so to speak, and attend school with people his own age.
Sure, there are bound to be bullies — and there are — but Auggie also forms fast friendships, while learning about the complexity and
frailty of human nature from his new friends.
And he picks up some valuable life lessons from the people he meets, including a teacher (Daveed Diggs) who articulates the film’s main message of how when you’re faced with being right or being kind, “choose kind”.
Following Auggie on this journey of sweet (and occasionally bittersweet) journey of self-discovery would be enough, especially because Tremblay, the young star of Room, is such a talented young actor and appealing presence.
However Wonder pulls a clever move by shifting its focus and viewing events from a variety of different perspectives, such as Auggie’s first friend Jack Will (Noah Jupe) or Auggie’s sister Via (Izabela Vidovic, very good), who is happy to let her little brother be the centre of the family’s attention but has a full, hectic life of her own.
If at first this tactic seems a tad disorienting, it quickly becomes clear it’s all part of Wonder’s grand plan — to generate empathy by asking the viewer to look at life through another person’s eyes.
Sure, the movie sometimes gets heavy-handed with the sentimentality, especially in its third act, but its message is so authentic and so wellmeaning it’s hard not to choose Wonder.