TIFF 2022: The Wonder Review

This will be one of many reviews during this year’s Toronto International Film Festival, to keep up with our latest coverage, click here.

The Wonder may be a fictional period piece, based on the book by Emma Donoghue, but the film goes out of its way to make it clear that its subject matter is still very relevant today. That being said, its message could be lost underneath its impressionistic exterior dressed up as almost like a dream. Using its thematic score and beautiful imagery to establish mood and atmosphere and to convey deeper emotions, there could be a disconnect there. Perhaps a little slower and subdued than what some audiences may expect, this drama, masquerading as a psychological thriller, is nevertheless saved by the always reliable Florence Pugh and a breakthrough performance by Kíla Lord Cassidy. Taking audiences on a journey, the characters are pushed to their breaking point as the film will challenge their beliefs as the battle of science vs. religion in the midst of the larger issue of control over women’s own bodies. However, the film gets lost at certain points over that journey. 

The Wonder takes place in the mid-1800s and sees an English nurse named Lib Wright (Pugh) brought to a small Irish town to investigate the case of a young 9-year-old girl named Anna (Cassidy) who has allegedly not eaten since her last birthday 4 months prior. The counsel of the devout town tasked her to determine the cause of Anna’s condition but really to just confirm that they had a miracle on their hands. While this was clearly not the case, the fight to expose the truth behind what was happening was easier said than done and literally a matter of life or death. In observing Anna, Wright got closer to her as their bond grew as she systematically eliminated the variables in her life to find the truth, primarily Anna’s family. Wright’s distant coldness as a response to her troubled past gave way in favor for her humanity as a result of her patient’s struggles. As the legend of Anna grew, her fight to save her got even more difficult. Essentially becoming a pawn in a much larger game though in the end, something had to give, making for Wright’s toughest challenge yet.

In the end, the best part of The Wonder was those aforementioned performances of Pugh and Cassidy. Peeling back layers, Pugh creates a tragic figure who pulls audiences into her pain and frustration up against the overbearing weight and pressure of the Irish town. When she let her walls come down and fully embraces Anna, it is a powerful transition. Pugh’s chemistry with Cassidy carries the film as the latter does more work below the surface as the devout girl moves beyond the shadow of her family and town and comes to grip with reality.

While the emotional impact isn’t quite there, The Wonder does just enough to leave audiences in enough of a sense of wonder.

*still courtesy of Netflix

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Keith Noakes

The EIC of the coincidentally-named keithlovesmovies.com. A Canadian who prefers to get out of the cold and into the warmth of a movie theatre.