‘The Wonder’ Review: You Won’t Believe Sebastián Lelio’s Latest, but Not in a Good Way

The Lord works in mysterious methods, Christians are keen on telling us. Extra mysterious nonetheless is the matter of religion, a uniquely human concept which operates on the precept that phenomena we will’t clarify are true, not as a result of we perceive them however as a result of we don’t must.

Set in an virtually medieval-feeling 1862, “The Surprise” asks audiences to ponder the which means of a miracle. Is it doable, because the religious residents of a small Irish group imagine, for an 11-year-old lady to outlive for 4 months with out meals? The kid, Anna O’Donnell (Kíla Lord Cassidy), abruptly stopped consuming, and swears that since then, she’s been sustained by “manna from heaven.” As phrase of this “marvel” unfold, pilgrims have come to see the phenomenon for themselves. Native authorities understandably have their doubts, calling for an English nurse, Lib Wright (Florence Pugh), to watch the state of affairs.

An outwardly stoic however inwardly bluesy soul who might herself be in want of saving, Lib is a modern-minded lady of science. She’s assured that Anna couldn’t be this wholesome with out consuming on the sly, however there’s no solution to show it. (Technically, there’s, crass as it might sound: As a substitute of specializing in what goes in to Anna’s mouth, she would possibly simply put the matter to relaxation by inspecting what, if something, comes out the opposite finish. In any case, the film works higher if it’s one individual’s religion towards one other’s.) Lib insists on logic, which suggests some form of trickery should be concerned, whereas the city physician (Toby Jones) and his all-male council (together with the world priest, performed by Ciarán Hinds) imagine in divine intervention.

With “The Surprise,” Sebastián Lelio, the gifted Chilean director accountable for “Gloria” and its English-language remake, “Gloria Bell” (in addition to 2018 Oscar winner “A Unbelievable Girl”), has delivered an evenhanded however in the end preposterous adaptation of Emma Donoghue’s novel, co-written by the creator herself (with an help from Alice Birch). The e-book was printed inside the previous decade however makes each effort to evoke its mid-Nineteenth-century milieu, as does Lelio, who pushes the coarse handmade costumes, dreary candlelit interiors and mud-mired Midland areas so closely that you simply means properly neglect you’re streaming this Netflix authentic on an iPad.

Then how you can clarify the movie’s Brechtian framing gadget? Lelio opens on a soundstage, drawing our consideration to the artifice: “Hiya, this can be a film known as ‘The Surprise,’” a girl welcomes (supporting actor Niamh Algar, so compelling in tiny doses, you want she had extra to do right here). Motion pictures aren’t actual, this uncommon introduction reminds, however their feelings may be. “We invite you to imagine on this one,” continues the narrator, as DP Ari Wegner (“Woman Macbeth”) tracks left from a farmhouse set to the maintain of a ship to search out Pugh, deep in character.

It’s not clear what the movie good points from this self-conscious setup, particularly since Lelio proceeds to offer his largely feminine solid enough space to make their characters really feel true. As soon as Lib arrives in Eire, the film commits to her actuality. Just some years earlier, the Irish Potato Famine pummeled the area, ravenous roughly 1,000,000, and meals continues to be treasured in most individuals’s minds. “The Surprise” doesn’t emphasize this overly, although you’ll be able to sense it in Lib’s frustration when her employers name her away from no matter gruel was to be her first meal on the boardinghouse the place she’s staying (a spot with practically a dozen hungry mouths to feed).

Lib quickly learns that she’s not the one nurse they’ve engaged, although the opposite isn’t any medical professional; she’s a nun. The 2 girls are to take turns watching Anna and report on their findings. Nevertheless politely severe Lelio’s strategy, it’s a standard sufficient horror-movie trope to ship in an professional to look at somebody exhibiting supernatural conduct, à la “The Exorcist” or “The Sixth Sense.” However “The Surprise” just isn’t a horror film. Neither is it the form of movie the place a skeptic is swayed by what she sees (one other acquainted gadget in such movies, the place the director can bend the foundations of nature to swimsuit their level). When Lib first meets Anna, she’s impressed by the lady’s conviction. Believers typically take pleasure in a serenity that atheists can not, capable of offload their anxieties to a better energy. Cassidy, who so eerily embodies Anna, faucets into that peace. However the lady just isn’t with out secrets and techniques.

To make her research extra scientific, Lib forbids any form of bodily contact between Anna and her dad and mom. Nearly instantly, the lady’s well being begins to stoop. Right here, the film appears to indicate that Lib is justified in her means: She’s attending to the Fact. Nevertheless it’s her rule that’s endangering Anna’s life, and the way in which she resolves the state of affairs (with the assistance of a London journalist, performed by Tom Burke) is ethically corrupt and downright inexcusable — a 3rd celebration deciding what’s proper for another person’s baby.

The “proper factor” is relative, particularly when faith is concerned, and unpacking Lib’s resolution absolutely would have made for a stronger movie — one thing like Ian McEwan’s “The Kids Act” maybe, through which a choose should select whether or not to intervene on behalf of a terminally in poor health baby whose Jehovah’s Witnesses dad and mom are refusing him therapy. As a substitute, Lelio offers us scenes of Lib sipping opium alone in her room, forlornly caressing a pair of child booties — a reminder of the non-public tragedies she carries together with her and a justification of kinds for the movie’s wildly miscalculated ending, whereby characters who’d been caught residing one narrative are capable of reinvent themselves in a recent considered one of their very own selecting.