A Hollywood movie about a deformed boy battling adversities starring Owen Wilson? Yes, it's exactly as predictable as it sounds. I hate to sound like a cynical old man (I'm actually only 22 with the mind of a fifty year-old whoops) but I've sat through my fair share of schmaltz which mainstream audiences seem to lap up. People seem to be completely sucked in by the manipulative tearjerkers which we've seen over the past few decades such as My Sisters Keeper and Marley and Me, but ultimately, they're sentimental nonsense and therefore phony.
Wonder is the 'heart-warming true story' of a boy who has a facial disfigurement and affects the lives of those around him. In all fairness, Wonder isn't a bad film. It's well-made and entertaining enough but certainly isn't anything memorable. It feels like an Oscar-bait movie but I have a suspicious feeling that Stephen Chbosky will be winning as many Oscars as he did for his previous debut, The Perks of Being a Wallflower.
It's likely to gain comparisons to the superior 1985 film, Mask due to having a central character facing similar issues. However whilst Mask handled the subject with maturity and objectiveness, Wonder smothers on the treacle and treats the audience like children who have an irrational phobia of people whose appearances are abnormal. In that sense, Wonder is a fantastic film for children to see and I was delighted to see plenty at my free screening with their tight parents.
So the film basically ticks off every cliché in the book. Deformed boy gets bullied, deformed boy finds friend and then falls out with said friend, deformed boy gets new friend etc. but it was nice to see a focus on other characters such as his neglected sister. It's interesting though how the other big character, Julian doesn't get a similar backstory. Maybe it has something with him being a two- dimensional bully?
No doubt audiences are going weep and applaud, and the film will do well at the box office. However, I prefer my movies with a sense of Haneke-realism to them. The saddest films I've seen feature absolute zero sentimentality. Requiem for a Dream rips your heart out and stamps on it. If Wonder wanted a similar effect, then it failed miserably. As a children's film however, it's fabulous and carries an extremely positive message which wraps itself in a lovely bow in the finish.
Wonder is the 'heart-warming true story' of a boy who has a facial disfigurement and affects the lives of those around him. In all fairness, Wonder isn't a bad film. It's well-made and entertaining enough but certainly isn't anything memorable. It feels like an Oscar-bait movie but I have a suspicious feeling that Stephen Chbosky will be winning as many Oscars as he did for his previous debut, The Perks of Being a Wallflower.
It's likely to gain comparisons to the superior 1985 film, Mask due to having a central character facing similar issues. However whilst Mask handled the subject with maturity and objectiveness, Wonder smothers on the treacle and treats the audience like children who have an irrational phobia of people whose appearances are abnormal. In that sense, Wonder is a fantastic film for children to see and I was delighted to see plenty at my free screening with their tight parents.
So the film basically ticks off every cliché in the book. Deformed boy gets bullied, deformed boy finds friend and then falls out with said friend, deformed boy gets new friend etc. but it was nice to see a focus on other characters such as his neglected sister. It's interesting though how the other big character, Julian doesn't get a similar backstory. Maybe it has something with him being a two- dimensional bully?
No doubt audiences are going weep and applaud, and the film will do well at the box office. However, I prefer my movies with a sense of Haneke-realism to them. The saddest films I've seen feature absolute zero sentimentality. Requiem for a Dream rips your heart out and stamps on it. If Wonder wanted a similar effect, then it failed miserably. As a children's film however, it's fabulous and carries an extremely positive message which wraps itself in a lovely bow in the finish.