This film is being screened as part of the 2022 BFI London Film Festival. You can find all of our coverage of the festival here.
This gothic and gripping mystery magnifies the wrought tension between fact and faith in rural nineteenth-century Ireland. Florence Pugh shines alongside newcomer Kila Lord Cassidy in Sebastian Lelio’s latest.
★★★★✰
For a period drama, Lelio’s adaptation of Emma O’Donoghue’s The Wonder, starts in an unusual place. In fact, the film opens on the most contemporary of settings, a soundstage in the present day. A voiceover lends reason as to why this is, inviting us to suspend our disbelief in a story that is inherently linked to our ability to do so. It’s a story about stories, you see, and there are multiple truths about to play out as our protagonist seeks to uncover the real one. The camera then pans to a set of a ship, on which our main character, English nurse Elizabeth Wright (played by the ever-brilliant Florence Pugh) makes her way to Ireland knowing very little about what she is to encounter there.
Upon arrival, Elizabeth discovers that she has been sent to not actually nurse a patient, but to observe one. This observation will be split into shifts with a nun from the next town over, with both asked not to confer about what they see. The watch, as they call it, has been commissioned by a committee of town elders, including the local doctor (Toby Jones) and priest (Ciaran Hinds). The patient, an 11-year-old girl called Anna (Kila Lord Cassidy) is a supposed miracle: the child has not eaten for four months, and yet, she remains not only alive, but in relatively good health. Elizabeth is immediately sceptical, determined to uncover the deception at the heart of this miracle. However, when she meets Anna, she too is drawn into the awe and wonder that the child invokes.
Though its premise is fairly simple, the lingering mystery at the heart of The Wonder is drawn out for a considerable portion of the film. The audience is left wondering whether this girl is in fact a miracle, but rather than it troubling viewers’ minds, we are more preoccupied with Elizabeth’s contention with this question. Florence Pugh is on top form as the unbelieving nurse, her matter-of-fact nature and coldness making the moments of contradiction feel that much more vulnerable and intimate. From her nightly ventures into ecstasy through opium, to moments where she connects with the child, Pugh’s restraint in every other scene demonstrates the ease with which she is able to provide subtlety and nuance.
In supporting roles, Tom Burke is engaging but nothing extraordinary as a journalist reporting on Anna, whilst Niamh Algar serves as a connecting bridge between the audience and the story. However, the only other performance to come close to Pugh’s, is the young Kila Lord Cassidy, who plays the eponymous wonder, Anna. There is a depth and maturity to Cassidy’s performance that makes you feel as if this girl has lived a whole lifetime, despite her retaining an innocence and purity that does feel somewhat miraculous. As you uncover the truth of her situation, she handles the dark and sensitive subject matter with a delicate touch that still packs a punch.
Despite the abruptness of the opening, from then on out you mostly forget about the film’s unlikely introduction as you are fully immersed in the Irish countryside. The Irish setting is crucial in providing the emotional impact. The trauma from the country’s famine still lingering, it’s key to understanding the significance of the miracle to which this community clings. And this strong sense of cultural identity and setting is emphasised through a number of the technical aspects. The cinematography by Ari Wegner is reminiscent of her other recent success, The Power of the Dog, capturing both the bleak vastness of the setting, and providing an intimate rendering of each and every character that somehow also feels vast in the emptiness around them. Some brilliant production design paints a vivid picture of a home that feels empty and cold, healing from some darkness. This is felt more greatly when contrasted with the bustling public house in which Elizabeth stays when not on watch. Matthew Herbert’s score feels out of place at times, but its unsettling placement further accentuates that this story is a gothic thriller and that we should feel on edge.
The film struggles in its final act, once we are aware of the truth, mainly because it loses momentum after the reveal. The stakes remain high, as a frantic Pugh makes sense of what she knows and what to do about it. However, the pacing feels off, and every time you think the film is drawing to a conclusion, it drags out a bit further. There are other plot tangents such as the relationship between Pugh and Burke’s characters that also upsets the pace. The length of the film feels only more prolonged by its subtle and slow-burn storytelling. This is a film that requires a steady attention span.
That being said, for those willing to take their time with it, it is a fascinating story about belief, desperation, and the stories we tell to get through the day—regardless of whether those stories are about religion, science, or our own lives. Similarities to O’Donoghue’s other prolific work, Room, were unexpected, but become tangible as the narrative progressed. The Wonder is a heavy watch but, as its title suggests, there is a sense of wonder left as the dust settles.
The Verdict
Though a slow-burner that will not be for everyone, The Wonder asks some poignant questions, made to feel bigger by the vastness of the setting. Immersive and truthful performances from Florence Pugh and Kila Lord Cassidy ground the film and it is this that makes it truly a wonder worth watching.
Words by Rehana Nurmahi
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