Deaf drama ‘Wonderstruck’ is ambitious, kid-friendly Cannes contender
Two years after his exquisite lesbian romance
Carol bowed on the Croisette, director Todd Haynes is back at Cannes Film Festival with another likely awards contender.
The Oscar hopeful in question is Wonderstruck, which author Brian Selznick ( Hugo) adapted for the big screen from his 2011 young adult novel.
The hybrid adventure/drama tells the parallel stories of two deaf children, set 50 years apart: Ben ( Pete’s Dragon’s Oakes Fegley), a precocious Midwestern boy in 1977 who loses his hearing in a lightning accident and sets off to New York to find the father he never knew, and Rose (deaf actress Millicent Simmonds), a New Jersey girl in 1927 who runs away from her stern parents (Julianne Moore and James Urbaniak) and seeks refuge at the American Museum of Natural History.
How their stories eventually intersect over the decades-spanning narrative is part of the charm of Wonderstruck, which co-stars Michelle Williams as Ben’s late mother and Moore in dual roles, playing both Rose’s actress mom and a much older Rose.
But don’t expect either to factor heavily into the awards conversation, given their minimal screen time.
Instead, the film’s best shots at Oscar gold are in technical categories such as production design, costumes and score (another lush offering from Carol composer Carter Burwell). Editor Affonso Gonçalves also stands a shot at a nomination, for seamlessly switching between the two perspectives. (Ben’s story is shot in color with sound, while Rose’s is told in black and white with no dialogue.)
That so much of Wonderstruck is silent could be a tough sell for Oscar voters, many of whom will watch the movie for the first time at home after Roadside Attractions and Amazon Studios release it in select theaters Oct. 20. A number of audience members at an early-morning screening Thursday were spotted sleeping, and the film earned only polite applause as credits rolled, despite enthusiastic reviews from critics.
Wonderstruck could also be challenging to market to its desired family audience, although Haynes believes that both children and adults can find something to latch onto.
“This was all about the imagi-
nation, vitality and complexity of kids, and with the film, I really wanted to honor what I think young audiences can handle in a movie,” Haynes said at a news conference. “They can handle a movie with this kind of dimension to it.”
Wonderstruck marks Haynes’ fourth collaboration with his selfdescribed “career soulmate” Moore after Safe, I’m Not There and Far From Heaven, for which she earned her fourth Oscar nomination ( before winning for
Still Alice in 2015). Moore learned American Sign Language (ASL) to play Rose, which she occasionally used during the news conference to sign with Simmonds.
“(The film) boiled down to what kind of languages we use and how we effectively use our bodies, our hands and ourselves without spoken English,” Moore said. “What I learned ... is that you’re always, as a human being, looking to communicate, whether it’s verbally, visually or with sign.”