Wonder

Wonder is a sweet story of a young boy named Auggie. It’s a little flawed but lighthearted and cheesy in all the right places, as well as having plenty to make people cry.

August “Auggie” Pullman (played by Jacob Tremblay) was born with a facial disfigurement and up until now he has been home-schooled, avoiding other children. Now he goes to school for the first time where not everyone is kind to him. But Wonder is not just Auggie’s story. The lives of those around him, for example his sister, are greatly affected by him and their stories are woven in too.

This movie is far from perfect but it’s hard to believe anyone wouldn’t enjoy it. There’s a certain fakeness to it; Auggie’s school class seems to be made up of kids who range from ten years old to 16; there are occasional lines that sound like marketing slogans randomly thrown in, which disrupt the dialogue; everyone seems to have unrealistically perfect lives and houses. But despite all that, Wonder is a genuinely nice movie. There are a number of sad tear-jerking moments, but the film is generally quite light-hearted throughout. It’s full of cheesy jokes, including a number of dad-jokes delivered by Owen Wilson, and they all land brilliantly.

Jacob Tremblay is, once again, brilliant. His performance as Auggie is totally flawless and he has no doubt become a young actor worth following. But the feature is in fact full of great young stars. Noah Jupe and Izabela Vidovic are wonderful in their roles as best friend Jack and sister Via. It’s a little unfortunate that the well-known stars, Owen Wilson, Julia Roberts and Mandy Patinkin, will overshadow them – although they are in turn overshadowed by Daisy the dog, who is perhaps the most wonderful and most heart-warming performer in the film.

Wonder has the perfect balance of sad moments, enough to make the happy parts feel all the more uplifting and inspirational. While it doesn’t quite have the depth to make it onto anyone’s favourite movies list, it is very much a crowd-pleaser and everyone will at least like if not love it.

Jim Compton-Hall

Wonder is released nationwide on 1^st December 2017.

Watch the trailer for Wonder here: