Sunday, October 22, 2017

Review: Wonderstruck

Image courtesy of Amazon Studios.
To say that "Wonderstruck" is a minor film in the career of Todd Haynes isn't an insult to the picture. Hayne's work from the past 20 years has been near flawless and included one great film after another, including "Safe," "Far From Heaven," "I'm Not There," the TV miniseries "Mildred Pierce" and "Carol." The director's latest may not be in the same league as the aforementioned films, but it's still a stylistically daring, enjoyable and often moving account of two wayward souls with a span of decades between them who connect through a twist of circumstance.

The picture is split up between two time frames - 1927 and 1977. The first section is the most stylistically unique. In it, a young girl named Rose (a fantastic Millicent Simmonds) flees from her oppressive father and high-strung actress mother (Julianne Moore) in New York City and is taken in by her older brother. The section is in black and white and is silent - however, one sequence takes pains to show us that the sequence is taking place during the era of talkies. Haynes' choice to make the sequence silent revolves around Rose being deaf.

In 1977, a young boy named Ben (Oakes Fegley) is mourning the loss of his mother (Michelle Williams), who was killed in a car accident, and flees from his home in Minnesota, where he is cared for by relatives, and heads to New York, where he believes his father is located. Prior to running away, Ben is the victim of an accident that damages his hearing. Once in New York, his wallet is snatched (hey, its the 1970s) and he's befriended by a young Puerto Rican kid named Jamie (Jaden Michael), whose father works in the Museum of National History.

Jaime shows Ben where he can hide out for the night in a nook of the museum while he makes plans to track down his father, whom he believes can be found at a book store for which he found a bookmark among his mother's possessions. Needless to say, Rose and Ben's stories converge - and in a manner that works both narratively and emotionally.

"Wonderstruck" bears some similarities to Martin Scorsese's "Hugo" in that it is also based on a young adult novel, but also in that it shows reverence to an artistic institution - Scorsese's film reveres the preservation of classic films, while Haynes' is an ode to museums. As I'd mentioned, it's not among his best films, but it's an occasionally wise, often charming and visually effective little movie. Rose's sequences are the main draw, but they also merge nicely with Ben's story and, thereby, deepen the meaning of both storylines.

"Wonderstruck" may be a movie about children that is more aimed for adults - but I think it would be a great viewing experience for kids. Unlike many American movies aimed at youngsters, it is intelligent and thematically rich. It's the rare type of movie that I could recommend to viewers much older than myself and much younger.

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