48. Wonder

Another Tuesday afternoon film for me, Wonder follows the story of Auggie Pullman (Jacob Tremblay), a young boy with Treacher-Collins syndrome, as his parents (Julia Roberts, Owen Wilson) decide it is time for him to enrol in mainstream school, after being home schooled.

The film deals with issues around bullying and children being cruel, as well as parents being cruel, and people's reaction to when someone is 'different'. I enjoyed the films perspective on this, and I especially enjoyed the fact that the film had a focus on Auggie's sister Via (Izabela Vidovic). The film looked at the whole family dynamic of dealing with the change of moving to mainstream school, as well as other social factors that occur along side it.

The film had a solid moral message, looking at the way people treat each other. As the film progressed, a solid group of friends are formed around Auggie, as the children realise that sometimes being 'cool' or hanging around bullies, have consequences. The children realise that what they really wanted was friendship and kindness.

The film also illustrated the issue of thinking before you speak, as this got one of Auggie's closest friends into a lot of trouble, nearly losing their friendship.

The film is heartwarming and emotional, and is written and produced well to reflect this. It's written and directed by Stephen Chbosky, the writer and director of The Perks of Being a Wallflower (he also wrote the book), and is very similar in style. For me, the plot doesn't necessarily ever come to a head, but actually the emotional story is written very well.

This isn't the best film I've seen all year, but it was enjoyable. If you want something that's relatively easy to watch, and will leave you feeling a sense of justice and happiness, this may be a good choice. I found the film interesting to watch with it's different angles, and it really investigated how the whole family felt about the struggles of the transition to school, as well as the emotional heartache of watching a son/brother have countless major operations.

I do question why Jacob Tremblay was cast, as opposed to someone with a genetic condition themselves.

Overall, I think Wonder deserves a 7/10. Not the best film out at the moment, but certainly one worth a watch.