Wonder (2017) (1 Viewer)

[mattCR]

So, this was a book that we read through with the kids over the summer and quite enjoyed. While everyone may be amped up for Justice League, I'm hopeful this film captures the spirit of the book.

 

[Colin Jacobson]

I'll probably see this at some point but I can't claim to want to see it - the movie looks awfully trite and sentimental.

Looks like it has good reviews so far, at least!

 

[Malcolm R]

I'll probably see this at some point but I can't claim to want to see it - the movie looks awfully trite and sentimental.

Agree. I'm also not a fan of Julia Roberts, to that's another strike for me.

 

[Colin Jacobson]

Agree. I'm also not a fan of Julia Roberts, to that's another strike for me.

I have no problem with Roberts or anyone else in the cast - I just have a bad feeling it'll be predictable and gooey goopy in terms of sentiment.

Looks an awful lot like "Mask Jr."!

 

[Pete Battista]

I will give it a chance... but will definitely wait for it to come to home video.

 

[Doug Wallen]

I will give it a chance... but will definitely wait for it to come to home video.

That's what MoviePass is for !!!

This is the one my wife talked me into this week for MoviePass.

 

[Wayne_j]

I absolutely loved this movie. You can definitely tell that this was from the same writer/director of The Perks of Being a Wallflower (a favorite of mine), but this one is more appropriate for the entire family.

 

[Wayne_j]

Here is a good review::

 

[mattCR]

I enjoyed this way more than I expected. There are some things where I worried a bit about inspiration-disability flick, but I thought the film really hit when it worked to show the family members. This was a far more well-rounded film than I think people will remember; and this is a really solid film you can curl up in a blanket later and watch.

I do agree with the video assessment above, that kids should see it, this is a really great film about what bullying really looks like.

 

[Adam Lenhardt]

I caught a matinee of this at the local arthouse theater today because my mom wanted to see it.

I loved it. It had the premise of an after school special or a Lifetime movie, but it never (except for maybe one scene at the very end) became syrupy or saccharine. One of the pleasant surprises was that it utilizes multiple overlapping points of view to tell the story, so you don't just get Auggie's story, you get the stories of all the kids immediately around him. And that forces you to not just have sympathy for Auggie and his struggles, but all of them and their struggles too.

There are some things where I worried a bit about inspiration-disability flick, but I thought the film really hit when it worked to show the family members.

I agree 100 percent. It felt like a real family. And you didn't have one saintly parent and one neanderthal, either. The characters played by Julia Roberts and Owen Wilson were both excellent parents that strive in different ways to meet the unique needs of their child. We pick up with this family's story when Auggie's starting middle school, so they been dealing with this for a long, long time and they're both pros at it by this point; they've put in the work.

And after being blown away by Izabela Vidovic a few weeks back when she basically took over as lead playing teenage Kara Danvers on a flashback episode of "Supergirl", it was great to see her pop up here in a very different role. Via's role in the family is one you see so often from the normative kid whose sibling has special needs. She knows her family has so much on their plate with her brother, especially when he was younger and going through countless surgeries, that she became self-sufficient prematurely and does her best to be invisible. It's very difficult for an actor to successfully capture a primarily introverted character, but Vidovic knocks it out of the park.

The whole cast was great, though, and this was an extraordinary assemblage of great child actors. If any of them had mugged for the cameras like child actors did up until a few years ago, the entire project would have been sunk. But everyone of them gives real performances. The particular highlights for me, beyond Tremblay and Vidovic, were Noah Jupe as Auggie's first friend, Millie Davis (Allison's daughter on "Orphan Black") as Auggie's second friend and Nadji Jeter as Via's love interest. Danielle Rose Russell deserves special mention as Via's former best friend, Miranda. It's a tricky character to pull off, and would have been far less interesting and human embodied by a lesser performer.

 

[Mark Booth]

Cathy and I are going to see 'Wonder' this afternoon. We haven't been to a movie theater in nearly a month and we are choosing 'Wonder' over 'Justice League', 'Murder on the Orient Express', 'Coco' and 'Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri'. The RT scores are even higher for those last two but 'Wonder' is the story that is telling us to see it today.

We hope to see 'Three Billboards' later this week.

Mark

 

[Mark Booth]

Loved it! Heartwarming and uplifting! The Booth Bijou gives 'Wonder' 5 out of 5 stars. It joins 8 other films that I've given 5 stars this year.

Mark

 

[Patrick Sun]

I was so surprised at how sad this movie made me feel, even got teary-eyed at some points, which rarely happens. Yes, a Movie Pass selection, a movie I'd probably never see, otherwise, but nonetheless, worth seeing, even on the small screen at home if you get a chance.

 

[Colin Jacobson]

I ended up seeing this, as a date wanted to go.

Definitely liked it more than I expected, as it largely avoided the cheesy sentiment and mawkishness I feared. Some of the usual feel-good manipulation occurred, of course, but the film largely earned its emotion without too much obvious tugging.

The movie's biggest problem is that it tries to cram too much story into too small a space. I like the fact that the tale spins off to focus on characters other than Augie, but this doesn't work terribly well because the film's just too short to really explore all of them.

I didn't realize the movie was based on a book until after I saw it, but it did feel like a novel adapted into a film - it just left the impression that large chunks of character development got left on the sideline.

Still an enjoyable movie but one that felt a bit incomplete and fractured...