The deal with films based on deformity and a kid engaging with the big bad world is the risk of it turning mawkish or emotionally manipulative. Fortunately, Stephen Chbosky’s Wonder pulls it off in the most adorable and heart-wrenching way possible. Though occasionally beaming with optimism and borderline unreal benevolence, the film very subtly strikes the right chords with the audiences' heart and makes it one of the best stories to experience onscreen this year.
Adapted from R.J. Palacio’s 2012 novel, Wonder is the story of Auggie Pullman (Jacob Tremblay), a brainy 10-year-old boy with a congenital facial deformity, whom numerous corrective surgeries have left looking like a cherub after a car accident. He’s just an ordinary kid whose looks take a bit of getting used to. He is a geek who loves Star Wars, Minecraft, ice cream and X-Box sports games; fueled by fantasies of going to outer space he likes to walk around in a toy astronaut helmet that conceals him and feeds his dreams, at the same time.
Home-schooled by his mother, Isabel (Julia Roberts), in their cozy Brooklyn brownstone, Auggie's parents decide to send him to middle-school as he turns 10. They know they can’t shield him from the world forever, and they have no desire to. The film is a highly tasteful heart-tugger; a drama that boasts of level-headed empathy that glides along with wit, assurance, grace, and has something touching and resonant to say about the ever prevailing atmosphere of American bullying and a child's hopes and dreams.
Jacob Trembly is the little star of Hollywood, who after Room, has established himself as an actor filmmakers would love to work with. Julia Robert and Owen Wilson as the Pullmans are amazing. There is a certain hope in their eyes as Auggie's parents, yet the vulnerability of their child being judged and bullied for his deformity is spot on. You expect nothing less from a cast like this, anyway.
Chbosky's last film, Perks of Being a Wallflower, boasted of being a coming of age story, and Wonder does have a similar tone to it. Full of real situations, kindness found in the eyes of strangers, some tear-jerking moments, Wonder might be less audacious than Perks... but definitely compelling and equally moving. Chbosky’s intense understanding of the layered personalities of kids and adults gives the film a liberal viewpoint, a thing not all filmmakers can manage.
Wonder is effective and magical. It is a film in which everything has a way of working out with a little bit of kindness and the vibes resonate with benevolence. A little too good at times, the film deserves all the love and tears for executing an otherwise childlike plot into a beautiful creation of human emotions and kid's imagination. A box full of tissue is recommended while watching this one.
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