‘Wonder’ is something to behold
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We could all use a dose of Wonder. The family-oriented film stars Julia Roberts, Owen Wilson and Jacob Tremblay, who plays Auggie Pullman, a child born with severe facial irregularities.
This could have been a schmaltzy tale. Instead, it’s a much-needed reminder that kindness exists in this fractured world.
Adapted from the best-selling 2012 novel by R.J. Palacio, Wonder ( rated PG; in theaters nationwide) paints the portrait of a family whose universe revolves around their 10-year-old son, who has a condition that causes him to hide behind a toy astronaut helmet in public.
Auggie has a big sister, Via (Izabela Vidovic), who protects him; a devoted mother, Isabel (Roberts), who homeschools him; and a good-humored father, Nate (Wilson), who makes life eas- ier when the world is particularly cruel.
The Pullmans’ cocoon is stable until Isabel decides fifth grade is the year Auggie should go to school with other kids his age for the first time.
It terrifies him.
You’d be hard-pressed to find a parent whose heart hasn’t wrenched waving goodbye on her child’s first day at a new school. But this farewell is unlike most others, and Roberts perfectly emotes what it’s like to smile through the terror of imagining how a sea of children will receive her child.
Smaller roles in Wonder are memorably filled with a roster of talent. A kind principal (Mandy Patinkin) enlists classmates (not all good apples) to show Auggie the ropes; a teacher (Daveed Diggs) encourages the shy, gifted child to participate out of the gate.
But no one will touch Auggie, or sit with him at lunch, or invite him over after school.
What’s remarkable about Wonder is that for two hours, we are not rooting for superheroes or the chiseled guy to get the no-nonsense girl. We’re rooting for strangers to treat a vulnerable child with kindness.
In the hands of writer-turned-director Stephen Chbosky (The Perks of Being a Wallflower), the dialogue between children is remarkably believable, as is the torment of Via, whose teenage struggles are shelved while Auggie’s plight takes the spotlight.
It would have been easy to make Wonder a preachy tearjerker, but what Chbosky does is construct a portrait of children figuring out who they want to be, and adults coming to grips with what they can and can’t control.
Faith — at least faith in the power of goodness triumphing in the face of casual cruelty — is Wonder’s fiber. And for 113 minutes, it sure feels good to believe.