It’s been a relatively low-key few years for Julia Roberts. She’s made several films, some good (August: Osage County), some not so good (Smurfs: The Lost Village), but it feels a while since the last ‘Julia Roberts Movie’, the like of which dominated the box office in the ’90s and noughties. Those glossy, hugely engaging studio pictures driven by strong female characters – and which, if we were lucky, would offer the bonus of one of her irrepressible bursts of laughter. A Julia Roberts Movie would, from Steel Magnolias to Erin Brockovich, have a big heart.
In many of those respects, Wonder (adapted from R. J. Palacio’s popular 2012 children’s novel) is in the classic Roberts mould. She plays kids’ book illustrator and part-time MA student Isabel, mum to teenager Olivia (Vidovic) and her little brother, sci-fi-obsessed Auggie (Tremblay) — the film opens with him bouncing in slow motion, clad in astronaut’s suit complete with enormous NASA helmet. Dad Nate, played by Owen Wilson, rounds out the family. The New York they live in, shot by Forrest Gump DP Don Burgess, could not be more charming — brownstone townhouses, turning autumnal leaves, bright yellow taxis. They even have an adorable dog. There is, however, a twist in their tale — Auggie has Treacher Collins Syndrome, resulting in conspicuous facial abnormalities. Suddenly the helmet – which, painfully self-conscious, he insists on wearing — makes all too much sense.
This is Jacob Tremblay's film.
There’s a danger with such material of descending into mawkishness, and while Wonder doesn’t escape this entirely, at the helm is writer-director Stephen Chobsky, whose previous film was the sweet but by no means sentimental The Perks Of Being A Wallflower. As Auggie negotiates the pitfalls of school for the first time, with gentle wit Chobsky delicately adopts a pattern of light and dark that runs through the film, acknowledging that life is, and people are, a blend of the two.
The cast sell this well. Roberts is as watchable as ever, her ability to convey complex emotions with a brief look undiminished (and, yes, we get one trademark belly laugh!); Wilson is the fun dad we’d all love to have and brings more depth to his role than is in the script. Their dialled-back performances ring with more truth for their understatement. But this is Jacob Tremblay’s film. Having impressed in Room, the 11-year- old inhabits the role entirely, conveying his joys, disappointments, fears and hopes with just a glance from under heavy prosthetics, also handling his character’s sporadic voiceover – a dangerous device that can
stymie even the most seasoned actor – with assurance.
The chapter structure offering different characters’ perspectives creates uneven pacing, some elements feeling rushed, and occasionally Wonder’s laudable messages can feel heavy-handed – a syrupy, manipulative musical score that wouldn’t be out of place in a ‘90s weepie of the week seems a misstep. Yet its themes of compassion, acceptance and kindness ring loud and clear. It’s a film with a big heart.
