The Wonder | Faith, reason and us

In 1862, 13 years after the Great Famine. Lib Wright, an English nurse, is called to the Irish Midlands by a devout community to spend 15 days at the bedside of one of their own. Anna O’Donnell is an 11-year-old girl who says she ate nothing for four months and miraculously survived. As Anna’s health deteriorates, Lib is determined to uncover the truth, shaking the faith of a community.

” Hello. This is the beginning of a movie called The Wonder. » From the first minutes of his captivating feature film, at the intersection of period drama and psychological thriller, Sebastián Lelio breaks the fourth wall. This Brechtian process, although we can criticize its use beyond measure in the cinema, ultimately serves the ambitious narrative contract that the Chilean director offers us in his adaptation of Emma Donoghue’s novel.

We are in 1862. The English nurse Lib Wright (Florence Pugh) is dispatched to Ireland to study the case of a teenager, Anna, who claims to have stopped eating and only survive by divine grace. Medical anomaly or miracle? The phenomenon unleashes passions in this small village where faith reigns.

If the backdrop of the story is 19th century Ireland^e century, impoverished by the Great Famine, the story has universal significance. It’s not a film about religion, but about the complex relationship humans have with truth and their belief systems. It is the emancipatory power of the stories that everyone tells themselves that is at stake here.

You have to be patient to know how to appreciate The Wonder. Immerse yourself in all the versions of reality that are suggested there. Lelio’s approach requires careful listening. Like Lib Wright at the bedside of the young miracle, you have to be content to observe attentively. Because the richness of the film lies in its subtext.

The direction of photography of Ari Wegner (Oscar winner for The Power of the Dog) wraps up the story divinely. The gothic aesthetic — a good choice for capturing the raw beauty of Irish landscapes — fuels the film’s gloomy atmosphere.

Faithful to its most recent performances (Midsommar, Don’t Worry Darling), Florence Pugh captivates in the main role, resolutely feminist. The English actress masters the delicate balance between realism and melodrama, walking with precision on a taut thread. Intrepid, generous and captivating, Pugh has not finished dazzling us. Honorable mention to the young Kíla Lord Cassidy (Anna), whose performance almost rivals that of her eldest. It promises !

The Wonder is available on Netflix.

historical drama

The Wonder

Sebastian Lelio
Screenplay by Alice Birch,
based on the novel by Emma Donoghue

With Florence Pugh, Tom Burke and Kila Lord Cassidy

1:48
On Netflix

8/10