The Wonder

The power of stories and how we choose to believe them is the overriding theme in this slightly haunting film, and the disconcerting framing device at the beginning and the end is used to hammer the point home .

Set in Ireland in the 1890s when the famine was a recent memory, the film is about a ‘fasting girl’ supposedly surviving on prayer alone, seen through the eyes of the nurse (Florence Pugh) employed to watch and report on the veracity of the claims.  Everyone has their own version of the story they want to protect, and that they are prepared to do or condone appalling things to maintain it.  We have a doctor, a scientist, convinced that the girl has found a new source of life, the religious believers, the scientific disbelievers and the journalist as well as the parents, all with their own agendas.  Florence Pugh is impressive as the nurse at the heart of this, both uncovering the stories upon stories woven together here, and adding layers of her own.  

The scenery and photography is simple but beautiful and every scene, word and action is there for a reason.  This is a piece of lovely and spare yet intricate storytelling itself. 

The whole piece is yet another reminder about what can happen when truth and people are sacrificed for the sake of a good story (see also The Crucible).  A film for our times - when the truth doesn’t matter any more, just make sure you have the best story.