Having seen thousands of movies in my life thus far, it’s a rare thing indeed to come across one that I’d go so far to say it was actually one of the best movies ever. But that is indeed something I feel safe to say for the 2017 release of a little gem called “Wonder”.
Based on the New York Times bestseller book, “Wonder” is the story of a boy named August Pullman (Jacob Trembley) who just wants to be accepted and loved for who he is inside, instead of being avoided for what he looks like on the outside. You see, August (nicknamed Auggie) was born with extremely pronounced facial deformities and has lived the entire first part of his life in almost total isolation because of it, having being home schooled by his mother Isabel (Julia Roberts). That all’s about to change though, as Isabel has decided it’s finally time to send August off to school for the fifth grade, in spite of her husband Nate’s (Owen Wilson) reservations. In a world where life is often not fair and appearance seems to be everything, it becomes immediately apparent that Auggie isn’t going to fit in in, as soon as he steps foot onto his new elementary school grounds. Which is sad because all he really wants in life is to have what everyone else in school seems to have, that being the ability to fit in with some friends who really like being around him. Yet, even as Auggie starts to believe he might remain alone and ostracized for his entire grammar school years, the Universe shows it might just have a different plan in store for him, one that could be exactly what Auggie’s heart has always desired the most.
What makes “Wonder” such a beautifully enriching film is not just because of this very moving plot revolving around Auggie’s journey to being loved and accepted, it’s much in part due to each of the subplots going on within the movie as well. There’s the story of Via and her constant feelings of invisibility in her family and in life in general. There’s the story of her best friend Miranda (Danielle Rose Russell) who suddenly pulls totally away from their friendship for no known reason. There’s the story of Isabel who has placed her entire life and promising career aside solely to take care of Auggie’s unique circumstances. And there’s the individual stories of several of Auggie’s new classmates tool like Jack Will (Noah Jupe) and Julian (Bryce Gheisar), amongst others, who each add a complexity to a film that becomes simplified through a number of things we’ve probably all faced at some point in life. Things like bullying and being picked on, meeting our first love, giving up our dreams to support another, feeling like we don’t matter in this world, and so much more.
But what moved me the most in “Wonder” though, beyond all these plots and subplots, was the great reminder it gave me of how difficult it was during my own grammar school years. Years that I often try to forget. Years where I too was bullied, picked on, ostracized and overlooked. While I may not have had any facial deformities back then like Auggie did in the movie, I clearly didn’t have an image during that period of my life that made for any type of popularity. But just like the Universe showed Auggie, there clearly was someone or something out there who was always watching over me, guiding me to the very thing my Spirit needed the most in life, that being to feel loved and accepted, even in light of being that odd man out. This is precisely why I consider this film to be one of the best movies ever, and why I feel confident it will eventually become a classic and a must-have for my own home movie collection…
Peace, love, light, and joy,
Andrew Arthur Dawson
