The Wonder review: Florence Pugh shines in an Irish gothic mystery

"Sebastián Lelio's The Wonder is an engrossing new gothic mystery that gives Florence Pugh the chance to turn in one of her best performances in years."

Cast and Crew: Florence Pugh, Tom Burke, Niamh Algar, and Elaine Cassidy
Drama, Mystery, and Thriller
Original Language: English (United Kingdom)
Director: Sebastián Lelio
Producers: Tessa Ross, Juliette Howell, Ed Guiney, and Andrew Lowe
Writers: Alice Birch, Sebastián Lelio
Release Date (Theaters):    Nov 2, 2022  Limited
Date of release (streaming): November 16, 2022
Runtime:    1h 48m
Distributor:    Netflix
Sound Mix: Dolby Digital

Pros

• Florence Pugh's commanding performance
• Kla Lord Cassidy's breakout supporting turn
• an atmospheric, Gothic mood

Cons

• A repetitive second act
• Several thinly sketched supporting characters
• A slightly rushed finale

"The Wonder" shows us just what it is in its spectacular opening scene. Disobedience and A Fantastic Woman filmmaker Sebastián Lelio's next picture begins on a modern-day soundstage. "This is only the beginning." An invisible woman informs us at the start of the film "The Wonder." "The individuals you're about to meet, the characters, are completely invested in their story." Without tales, we are nothing. As a consequence, we encourage you to believe in this one." We are no longer on a set by the time Lelio's camera has finished its methodical opening movement, but aboard a Victorian-era ship destined for Ireland.

We know the spacecraft isn't genuine. We know that the cabin we're witnessing is a set, and that the lady at the centre of it isn't an English nurse called Lib Wright, but Florence Pugh, one of the world's most recognisable stars. The Wonder is well aware that we are. It understands that we know the truth of what we're witnessing, just as we know that Michael Corleone is a role performed by Al Pacino. In other words, the wonder is aware that all tales, particularly written films, are lies.

They are lies that we choose to trust at our own risk. The film's insistence on addressing this in its first scene is not only a daring, attention-grabbing artistic move, but it also serves as the appropriate starting note for a film about tales and, more precisely, how they may rescue or kill us, depending on which we choose to believe. After all, some falsehoods are more lethal than others.

The Wonder, based on Emma Donoghue's 2016 novel of the same name, follows Pugh's Lib as she travels to a post-famine Ireland to take part in a fascinating new work. When Pugh's old wartime nurse arrives, she is astonished to learn that she has been sent not to heal a sick patient, but to see a local "miracle." The miracle in issue is revealed to be Anna O'Donnell (Kla Lord Cassidy), a young, pious girl who has been fasting for months.

Lib's mission is to keep an eye on Anna and her family to make sure she isn't being fed covertly or faking her own seemingly unsuccessful fasting. Despite initially dismissing Anna and her other villagers' assertions, after spending several days with the O'Donnells, Lib begins to rethink both herself and her beliefs. Unfortunately, Lib's increasing devotion to Anna not only brings up various old traumas, but also puts her at odds with the ideas and tactics of many of the Irish people she's found herself surrounded by.

The Wonder uses Lib's relationship with Cassidy's Anna to explore themes of pain, religious fanaticism, death, and rebirth throughout the course of its quick 103-minute length. While the second half of the film occasionally tries to overcome the intrinsically repetitious character of Lib's job, The Wonder mainly succeeds in converting its story of agonising guilt and love into an engaging and captivating gothic mystery. This is owed in large part to the efforts of its well-rounded ensemble, particularly its strong two protagonists.

As The Wonder's central nurse, Pugh provides a powerful, empathic anchor. Her character's severe emotional wounds and unrelenting desire to save her patients from the horrors of the world provide Pugh with the opportunity to deliver one of her greatest performances to date, if not her best since Lady Macbeth in 2016. Cassidy, who plays Anna, the faith-driven teenager who has already found herself swept up in a tempest of spiritual and emotional depravity by the time The Wonder begins, provides a quietly dominating breakout performance opposite her.

The Netflix video goes out of its way to graphically represent the protagonists' dichotomy of despair and optimism. Lelio transforms Anna's attic, where Pugh's Lib spends much of The Wonder, into an enormous, gloomy place in collaboration with cinematographer Ari Wegner. Lelio and Wagner are able to create frames in which Pugh and Cassidy are standing in both light and darkness by frequently relying entirely on the faint, washed-out light that seeps in through the windows of the O'Donnells' home to illuminate Anna's attic.

Outside of its centre hamlet, Ireland's pale grey sky and muddy, green pastures only serve to enhance The Wonder's gothic ambiance. Recurring images of pricked thumbs and Wegner's usually steady, drawn-out camera movements contribute to the film's dread, which Lelio heightens by filling some of The Wonder's calmer moments with looping repetitions of Anna's daily, murmured prayers.

All of these visual and auditory patterns, together with the intensity of Pugh and Cassidy's performances, lead to a third act that is both cathartic and horrifying. The film's eventual resolution may appear way too tidy on the surface for a picture as ethically and emotionally complicated as The Wonder. However, at the heart of The Wonder's narrative is a dark, bittersweet reality that reminds us that even our most precious stories must sometimes be left behind in order for new ones to be told.

The Wonder will be streaming on Netflix on November 16.