The flicks
Hiding in plain sight, hoping to be seen in WONDER ... and ONLY THE BRAVE, when keeping your cool may not be enough g to beat the heat
WONDER (PG) Director : Stephen Chbosky (The Perks of Being a Wallflower) Starring : Jacob Tremblay, Julia Roberts, Owen Wilson, Izabela Vidovic, Noah Dupe. Rating : êêêê
A PERCEPTIVE adaptation of the 2012 bestseller by RJ Palacio - a beautiful book which spawned the anti-bullying ‘Choose Kind’ movement - Wonder lives up to its title in several ways.
Though a dead-set, can’t-miss crowdpleaser, this appealing all-ages movie does not simply settle for leaving us with a lot to like.
Instead, Wonder subtly pushes throughout for something more: insights on how we treat each other that can be lingered upon and learned from.
Parents please note: think for a minute about some of the big-screen junk your children have been subjected to this year. Make it up to them by making sure you get them along to Wonder.
It is one of those rare movies that will leave them with a little something about empathy and open-mindedness that just might sink in for the long haul. Until the age of 10, Auggie (Jacob Tremblay) has been home-educated by his mother Isabel (Julia Roberts), a result of being in and out of hospitals since birth.
Auggie suffers from a congenital disorder that has both disfigured his appearance and played havoc with his overall health.
However, the time has now come for Auggie to get his first extended exposure to the real world by attending a regular school.
Needless to say, the other children do not make it easy for this sensitive and intelligent boy. Auggie’s only defence against judging eyes and taunting mouths is an astronaut helmet he wears as much as possible.
Though the journey of Auggie in Wonder is a seemingly predictable one from exclusion to acceptance, the thoughtful, gently questing route taken along the way backs off from many convenient cliches.
Intuitive and comprehensive scripting is the key. On a regular basis, director Stephen Chbosky puts the main plot on hold, and delves into the back story of those who know (and don’t know) Auggie.
Each one of these diversions actually keeps Wonder firmly on its intended track.
We come to process the anguish parents must feel when a child they have protected and nurtured above all else must begin to look after himself. Time is also set aside to explore the impact that the intense love and concern lavished upon Auggie has had on his supportive elder sister Via (Izabela Vidovic).
Most impressively of all, the storytelling scope of Wonder widens even further to gain an understanding of why otherwise well-behaved children can take such a fixed and cruel stance against one of their own kind.
This aspect of the film is incredibly wellhandled, and is sure to get through to kids about bullying and prejudice in a way that stern warnings and catchy hashtags will not. THE MAN WHO INVENTED CHRISTMAS (PG) A pleasant enough, if slightly disjointed Christmas film, following hard historical fact with fanciful detours into fiction. In 1843, legendary British author Charles Dickens (Dan Stevens) is enduring the worst slump of his prolific career. The three books Dickens has penned since the classic Oliver Twist have all tanked. The next one had better be a hit, or his publisher will cut him loose and creditors will swarm in from all directions. Against all advice - not to mention the prevailing trend of the era - Dickens decides his next work will be an old-fashioned Yuletide yarn. So old-fashioned that it revives the lost tradition of telling ghost stories to commemorate Christmastime. The end result, of course, will be one of Dickens’ greatest works, A Christmas Carol. However, with a deadline looming and distractions everywhere, Dickens’ nightly struggles with a deathly case of writer’s block sees the writer forging deeper into the realm of personal experience for inspiration than ever before. GOODBYE CHRISTOPHER ROBIN (PG) While Winnie-the-Pooh is one of the most beloved children’s book characters of all time, far less is known about his creator, the British playwright and author AA Milne. Needless to say, Goodbye Christopher Robin is looking to fill in a lot of those blanks. As this serious (often bordering on stern) biopic shows us, Milne’s wistful lightness of touch as a writer came from quite a heavy place. Suffering from an undiagnosed post-traumatic stress disorder after serving as a soldier in World War I, Milne (played by Domhnall Gleeson) keeps a careful emotional distance from his dissatisfied wife Daphne (Margot Robbie) and their neglected young boy Christopher (nicknamed Billy). As they find a bond, father and son conjure soon-to-be-immortal figures such as Eeyore, Tigger and, of course, Winnie for the first time. Viewers will be drawn to the movie’s one pocket of enduring warmth: Billy’s relationship with the woman who all but raised him, his nanny Olive (acted by Kelly Macdonald).