Florence Pugh is perfect in this Sebastian Lelio film about religious obsession and skeptics. The opening sequence of Sebastian Lelio's The Wonder begins on a contemporary film set, the camera panning to reveal the setting of a story in the 19th century Irish Midlands. It is the voice of Niamh Algar that guides us through the context of the land ravaged by the Great Famine. “We are nothing without stories, that is why we invite you to believe in this one”.
He feels quite unnecessary to a degree, as if the filmmaker is deliberately anticipating the impossibility of suspending belief around this story. This story is to be believed, however, as The Wonder, adapted by Emma Donoghue's titular work, rises above its wall-breaking fourth opening to become a richly atmospheric and ultimately rewarding work.
Directors: Appie Boudellah, Aram van de Rest
Writers: Appie Boudellah, Mustafa Boudellah, Maikel Nijnuis
Stars: Sallie Harmsen, Yolanthe Cabau, Louis Talpe
The opening cuts straight to the face of Florence Pugh, who plays Lib Wright, an English nurse called to Ireland to verify a miracle. It is 1862. An 11-year-old girl named Anna O'Donnell (Kíla Lord Cassidy) has survived without eating for four months. She must care for the girl for two weeks and report to the self-appointed committee of men (played by Toby Jones, Ciaran Hinds, and Brian F. O'Byrne). Upon arrival, Lib discovers that she has also been called a nun named Sister Michael (Josie Walker), who would care for her overnight.
When she first meets the girl, she says that she is surviving thanks to manna from heaven. Her mother, Rosaleen (played by Cassidy's real mother, Elaine) says that her daughter doesn't need to eat. Lib is stunned by the family's deeply religious lifestyle, her skepticism mirroring our own. She routinely checks on the girl, her suspicions growing as she gets closer to her. A journalist named William Byrne (Tom Burke) also turns up, eager to write an article about the girl. He also has a story, which will be a guiding thread for the intervention that he will ensure later.
Wonder is less interested in finding the truth from Anna. Lelio, working with co-writer Alice Birch and Emma Donoghue, uses the core concept to create a modern take on the divide between fact and faith, dogma and pragmatism that reveals itself as a haunting, slow-simmering drama. Pugh is surprisingly in control as Lib, anchoring our own skepticism and processing her own.
The Wonder is firmly revealed through Pugh's face, as she connects the dots based on her observations. She watches her face as she recoils under the shock of the truth when it is revealed, and manipulates her condition accordingly. Pugh is aided by Cassidy's presence as Anna, who gives the film's stellar performance as a girl trapped under the weight of religious obsession. Matthew Herbert's tense and haunting score fuels inner angst, while cinematographer Ari Wegner's masterful use of light and fading makes it feel like a horror movie in progression.
Although The Wonder begins and ends with a meta-resolution that is persuasive, it can seem too frustrating in the middle. Lelio is strongly interested in the predicament of history, how stories are built to move forward. Most of the action, save for the exquisitely done last half, stays in-house. This is a moving and delicately political film that cements Lelio as one of the most intrepid filmmakers of the generation. It benefits profoundly because Pugh is at the center, building intensely to reveal the dangers of convincing ourselves with our own sense of truth and reality.
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