Wonder
Dir: Stephen Chbosky
2017
**
Author R.J. Palacio got the inspiration for her 2012 novel ‘Wonder’ after taking her son out for ice cream one day where they saw a child with mandibulofacial dystosis, also known as Treacher Collins syndrome. Her son cried at the sight of this boy, which had a deep effect on the writer who chose to write about the syndrome, adding her and her son’s experience into the story. However, the fictional story of young August "Auggie" Pullman tells you very little about Treacher Collins and is really just an excuse at pulling on the heartstrings. Wonder is emotionally manipulative and extremely heavy handed, it’s only motive is to make the audience cry and as if the loneliness of a child wasn’t enough, it throws in shattered friendships, dead grandparents and the death of a beloved pet for good measure. I went to school with a boy with Treacher Collins syndrome and he wasn’t bullied once, he, unlike Auggie, was entered into the school system like everyone else so we knew him young and never saw him as anything other than the nice boy he was. The boy in the film however was home-schooled until the age of 10 and only entered the school system in fifth grade. So for me Wonder isn’t about a poor little boy with Treacher Collins syndrome, it’s about a poor little boy with stupid parents (played by Julia Roberts and Owen Wilson). In fact, all the parents featured in the film come across in a bad light – maybe a subconscious act of redemption by R.J. Palacio following the ice cream shop incident, or maybe just poor writing. The whole film is a colour-by-numbers, sugar-coated, heavy-handed series of melodramatic clichés and sentimental nonsense. If you really wanted to educate people about Treacher Collins syndrome, then cast a child with Treacher Collins syndrome. R.J. Palacio has basically taken Peter Bogdanovich’s 1985 classic Mask, deep-fried it, wrapped it in powdered sugar and covered in syrup, before mixing it with Diary of a Whimpy Kid. Star Wars references are thrown in for the kids (and older kids like me) but I’m not buying it, it’s a cheap shot to cover all the bits copied from elsewhere. The play Our Town is featured towards the end of the film, which is odd, because it is extremely similar in that it shares vignettes of various characters at various points in their lives. Is this R.J. Palacio acknowledging the play as a source of inspiration or is she forgetting it is the play see copied from. Either way, I don’t think it’s executed particularly well. However, I did like the part of the film that was seen from the perspective of Auggie’s older sister, who is supportive but a little side-lined by her parents because of her brother’s needs. I thought this part of the story had substance to it, although it all went sideways towards the end. The huge problem with the film is that it just isn’t real. If I’m going to sit and watch a film about the experiences of someone struggling with Treacher Collins syndrome – or any other rare issue – then I have to be convinced by it – it has to be real! This is just shameless manipulation with sub-standard performances and more cinematic clichés than you can shake a stick at. The truth is, I’m a sucker for a weepy tear-jerker as much as the next man. I like a melodrama and the more cheese the better. The problem is that Wonder is so woefully contrived and so sickly sweet that what teeth of mine I didn’t grind down to nothing while watching eventually fell out due to rot.