It is 1862 in a remote Irish village when an English nurse is called in by a local council to observe and investigate a phenomenon in the haunting new film 鈥� ." There is, she鈥檚 told, an 11-year-old girl who has not eaten food in four months and seems to still be healthy.
The nurse, Lib Wright (Florence Pugh), is to watch the girl, in alternating shifts with a nun 鈥� it is Ireland, of course鈥� and report back as to what she observes. They say they鈥檇 like to know if it鈥檚 a miracle or not, though most seem to have made up their minds that they'd rather not actually hear if it's the latter.
The film, from Chilean director Sebasti谩n Lelio (" "), is adapted from a novel by Emma Donohue, the Irish writer of 鈥淩oom.鈥� She was, she鈥檚 said, inspired by the Victorian Fasting Girls. In the late 19th century newspapers ran stories about young girls, often bedridden, who claimed to have been living without food or water for extended periods of time. Some doctors regarded it as hysteria. Some believed it a holy miracle and made pilgrimages to visit the girls.
Lengthy fasts have long been celebrated in saints and nuns going back to the Middle Ages, perhaps most famously in Catherine of Siena. In 1982, historian Joan Jacobs Brumberg would write in her book that it was undiagnosed anorexia nervosa, though somewhere along the way someone would give religiously motivated starvation its own term: Anorexia mirabilis. Like 鈥淩oom,鈥� 鈥淭he Wonder鈥� delves into deep, uncomfortable traumas and it will not be for everyone, especially those triggered by depictions and descriptions of disordered eating.
Lelio, who co-wrote the adaptation with Alice Birch, uses a curious Brechtian framing device, opening the film in an empty, florescent-lit soundstage as a narrator, Niamh Algar, invites the viewer into the film. 鈥淗ello. This is the beginning. The beginning of a film called 鈥楾he Wonder.鈥� The people you are about to meet, the characters, believe in their stories with complete devotion. We are nothing without stories, and so we invite you to believe in this one,鈥� Algar says as cinematographer Ari Wegner鈥檚 camera pans over to a set piece of a boat鈥檚 cabin and focuses in on Lib.
It is not ineffectively done, but I鈥檓 also not sure it adds anything since the film mostly commits to Lib's reality from thereon. Aren鈥檛 all films inviting us to believe, after all? Though maybe it is something worth repeating. And the sentiment will surely echo in your head as science clashes with religion in what is a very compelling gothic mystery about the curious case of Anna O鈥橠onnell (K铆la Lord Cassidy).
Pugh gives yet another stunning performance, utterly naturalistic and committed, as a skeptical nurse recently back from Crimea with Florence Nightingale, her own private losses haunting her. She is an outsider in every possible way, a woman of science and English, coming to this small, deeply Catholic town that has just emerged from the Great Famine.
Lib is certain that Anna is not telling the truth when she says she has existed solely on 鈥渕anna from heaven鈥� for four months. She knows she would be dead if that were the case. But also finds herself getting more invested in her subject than she perhaps anticipated. Anna鈥檚 story has travelled, too, and has become a comfort not just for her parents but for strangers from all over who come to witness the miracle. It鈥檚 also attracted a journalist from the city, played by Tom Burke, who is both a thorn and a help to Lib on her increasingly frustrating search for truth and facts, which she starts to understand are not so simple in this town.
Early on, Lib asks Anna鈥檚 mother what her last meal was: It was the Eucharist on her first communion.
鈥淪o just water and wheat?鈥� Lib responds.
鈥淣o,鈥� she鈥檚 told. 鈥淚t鈥檚 the body and blood of Christ.鈥�
It鈥檚 a story to Lib and a fact to believers and they find themselves at an impasse that feels awfully resonant. But science and belief clashes aside, 鈥淭he Wonder鈥� is a transfixing, transportive film, anchored by the incomparable Pugh.
鈥淭he Wonder,鈥� a Netflix release playing in theaters now and streaming Nov. 16, has not been rated by the Motion Picture Association. Running time: 109 minutes. Three stars out of four.
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Follow AP Film Writer Lindsey Bahr on Twitter: www.twitter.com/ldbahr.
Lindsey Bahr, The Associated Press
