Wonder (2017)

November 30, 2017 11:53 AM

Based on the New York Times bestseller, Wonder tells the incredibly inspiring and heartwarming story of August Pullman, a boy with facial differences who enters fifth grade, attending a mainstream elementary school for the first time.

Born with facial differences that, up until now, have prevented him from going to a mainstream school, Auggie becomes the most unlikely of heroes when he enters the local fifth grade. As his family, his new classmates, and the larger community all struggle to discover their compassion and acceptance, Auggie's extraordinary journey will unite them all and prove you can't blend in when you were born to stand out.

Currently 85/91 on Rotten Tomatoes
Reviews in Variety and Vulture

posted by Clinging to the Wreckage (5 comments total)

I watched this with a youth group I help lead. It was a mix of kids between 5th-8th grade and we rented 4 theaters for the show which was pretty neat. I didn't know a lot about the story going in because I hadn't read the book. It was a bit formulaic and predictable and the ending is fairly 'movie happy' for all, but it's really well done. The acting by the kids is amazing and the adults mostly get out of the way. Tears were shed in the theater at several points, by the too-cool-for-school kids and the jaded parents. They did a great job of telling the story from multiple characters' perspectives without making it feel like we were watching the same scenes again from different camera angles. I felt like every person in that theater could see themselves in several of the characters.

400 kids who will never settle down were glued to the screen for 2 hours which is no small accomplishment.
posted by Clinging to the Wreckage at 12:47 PM on November 30, 2017

I saw this last weekend. It was so great to sit in a theater that was packed for a family movie—and there was lots of clapping at the end. Great performances by all the kids and it was nice seeing Owen Wilson in a less goofy role than usual. Also nice to see an inter-racial teen romantic relationship without the racial difference being a “thing”—or even mentioned.
If you haven’t read the book, read it! And share it with your kids! I hope it’s being read in many classrooms. Good writing and excellent conversation starter about diversity, kindness, friendship, peer pressure, and loyalty.
posted by bookmammal at 5:00 PM on November 30, 2017

Miranda’s backstory was intriguing, as the child of a bereaved mother who was abandoned by her philandering husband/Miranda’s father, who left the family because he married the woman with whom he had presumably been cheating on Miranda’s mother. This was one of the more realistic and brilliant depictions of child abandonment, and emotional and financial neglect by a cheating parent, and it proves why whenever a cheater says “I left you, I didn’t leave the kids” they are totally full of shit.

Every time I see the inimitable Owen Wilson on screen these days, I think of how the world almost lost him to suicide a few years ago.

Via’s heroic Grandmother telling her she was her favorite was a wonderful scene.
posted by edithkeeler at 3:06 AM on December 4, 2017

Carly Findlay is an Australian writer and appearance activist, and you can read her review here.

I liked it.

It was a little bit too sweet, a little bit too positive. I was glad that Via showed a little bit of disagreement, because the family was too Hollywood perfect.

I was disappointed Auggie was played by a kid without any facial disfigurement. There's a good twitter thread about it here.
posted by daybeforetheday at 11:10 PM on December 10, 2017

This was way too heavy as an after school special for an adult to enjoy it. My 9 year old understood it fairly well and we had some good discussions around it. I appreciate that the old sister being ignored was shown.
But it was so cheesy. I was bored beyond belief - and I watch a lot of kids movies.

Also the music was really obvious and not well selected. Bruce's Santa Claus is Coming to Town is a fave but it made no sense in the film. The White Stripes' We Are Gonna Be Friends is cute but so obvious in this case and was used twice, although the second time was a cover.
posted by k8t at 2:51 PM on January 2, 2018