Wednesday, January 17, 2018

Movie Review: Wonder

We read the book Wonder by R.J. Palacio in the first year of the book club.  I've been looking forward to the movie ever since I heard it was in production, and this year we finally got to see it.

In short: I loved it!

Of course, the book was better, but the book is always better.  The movie made some changes from the book, but I think that all of the changes worked well for the transition to a different medium.

In particular, they really toned down Auggie's face.  As it's described in the book, the differences are a lot more pronounced.  It makes sense to me, though.  In the book, you read that description, get an idea, but then you continue reading the book and can concentrate on the story without being continually distracted by Auggie's face being re-described every time he says something.  Throughout the movie, however, I can see it being a distraction since it is a visual medium. Also, in a book narration can convey a character's feelings without the character having to say anything, but in a movie any unspoken emoting can only be communicated visually, and heavy prosthetics might make that too challenging for the actor.

I was also really glad that they took little "detours" in the film to shift the point of view to other characters as was done in the book.  I particularly appreciated Via's "chapter" (played wonderfully by Izabela Vidovic), but all of the characters' points-of-view served to fill out the story of not only what Auggie's life is like, but the fact that everyone else in his life is their own person with their own issues.  I liked the presentation of life being the interaction of fully-formed individuals that we and Auggie came to care for.


Overall I found that the same beats that hit me emotionally in the book translated well to the film, and I cried more than once!  This was my favorite Mandy Patinkin performance since The Princess Bride.  The scene at the end of the book in which his character gave a speech was one of the places I cried at first reading, and even though I knew it was coming, I cried again when the movie got to that point.

Daveed Diggs continues his successful quest to become a superstar of all media. His role was small and understated in the film, but when he was on screen he was great.  If I had edited the movie, he would have been in so many more scenes!

One nitpick: I wish Owen Wilson had more age-appropriate hair...

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