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While Don’t Worry Darling has been dominating the headlines, Florence Pugh’s other film festival release has been quietly impressing critics. The Wonder, which was screened at the Telluride Film Festival over the Labor Day weekend, is an adaptation of the novel of the same name by Emma Donoghue (who also co-wrote the screenplay).
Pugh plays an English nurse sent to the Irish Midlands to observe the miracle of a young girl who stopped eating four months prior but is completely unaffected. Sebastián Lelio directs the moody period piece set in the mid-1800s that also stars Tom Burke, Toby Jones, and Ciaran Hinds.
The early reviews for the film have been good, calling Pugh’s performance a stand-out. The Hollywood Reporter said The Wonder is a "striking achievement". Reviewer Stephen Farber writes: "There’s no disputing the power of the story and of the central performance. Pugh has shown great strength in earlier films like Lady Macbeth and Little Women, but here she rivets our attention from first frame to last."
The Wrap called it a "career best" for Lelio. "You’ll need to have faith in your core to be swept away by Sebastián Lelio’s lovely and elegiac The Wonder," Tomris Laffly concludes. "A mournful and textured psychodrama that gently nurses one into hope and spiritual serenity."
Indie Wire gave it a thumbs up with reviewer David Ehrlich writing: "The Wonder often skims along the surface when it should cut deeper, but the film’s obviousness only holds it back for so long. By the time it reaches its final shot – inevitably closing the clever parenthetical opened by its first – you just might believe every word of it, too."
However, not everyone is so convinced, with Deadline’s Todd McCarthy concluding: "Atmospheric and intriguing up to a point, it nonetheless feels like much ado about a mildly curious situation that’s been milked for rather more than it’s worth." While Variety’s Peter Debruge calls it "an evenhanded but ultimately preposterous adaptation of Emma Donoghue’s novel."
The Wonder will be released in theaters in November and on Netflix in December. Check out our guide to the best Netflix movies and best Netflix shows to stream right now.
