Wonder - Movie review--Everyone needs a cheerleader

Wonder movie review

Wonder is based on the novel of the same name by RJ Palacio.  August, Auggie, Pullman was born with genetic defect that caused him to be born with severe facial deformities.  He has numerous surgeries to help him see and hear, and to help with how his face looks.

Auggie is a normal ten year old.  He is into space, Star Wars, Minecraft, and playing his Xbox.  But he is homeschooled and doesn’t seem to have friends outside of his family.

Auggie is born into a well off family in New York.  His mom is able to stay at home and home school him.  The movie begins when at the age of ten his parents decide that it is time for him to enter a regular school as he old enough for middle school.  Auggie’s mom Isabel Pullam, played by Julia Roberts, is understandably exhausted from homeschooling him his whole life.  His father Nate Pullman, played by Owen Wilson, is terrified of sending him to school, he knows that kids can be cruel.  And of course they will be.

The movie is told from different points of view.  

We begin from Auggie’s point of view.  He is given a private tour of the school at the end of summer break.  He meets with the school principal Mr Tushman, played by Mandy Patinkin, and he given a tour by three students.  This seems to be the first time that Auggie has ever interacted with other kids his age, or at least kids his age that are nice to him.  Or course we see the first real bully, apply named Julian Albans, a spoiled well-to-do kid.  And we see the beginning of the first friendship in Jack Will.

The story invariable sends Auggie to school where he is bullied for the way he looks and to being way too much into Star Wars.  His first day he comes home hids in his space helmet and refuse to talk about his day.

The movie then switches to his sisters point of view.  Via is his older sister, and I found this part to be the most interesting.  Via tells her story as the forgotten child.  Via is normal and healthy, and when Auggie was born, when she was five, she became invisible.  As she astutely states that the family revolves around the Sun/Son, and we just the planets.  Via struggles with the issues of being a teenage girl who is entering high school.  Old friends moving on, boyfriends, and while still trying to connect with the parents that are more focuses on the younger sibling.  It is with Via, that we learn everyone needs a cheerleader.  Even those that don't seem to need one on the outside.  For Via, that cheerleader was her late grandmother.  

And now with Auggie needing more attention due to being in school, she needs a cheerleader even more.  And this theme of cheering comes to the forefront when Via enters the drama club in an effort to make friends.

The movie pulls all the right and expected heart strings.  

There have been some complaints that the movie hired an able-body actor to play Auggie with just a heavy does of make-up.  Auggie does not look as massively deformed as he is described in the book. I think there could have been more tension if Auggie looked closer to what was described in the book, but I’m being nit-picky here. The movie is aimed at upper elementary and middle school students who read the novel.  And for that it hits the mark.

Auggie is funny and smart.  His parents are good parents who do a very good job of raising Auggie, which in some way took away some of the struggle.  They are able to protect him through home schooling and then sending him to an expensive private school.  But in the end, Auggie is a person we want to know personally, and that is what makes the movie enjoyable.  And to remember that when faced with the choice to be right or kind: Choose Kind.

And the movie reminds us that we all need a cheerleader in our lives.

Final Thoughts

I would recommend catching this before it leaves the theaters.  If you have a middle schooler, they have probably read the book and would enjoy this interpretation of the book.