Review: Wonderstruck

How does one follow up Carol, an overwhelmingly romantic film that appeared in almost every critic's "Best of" list in 2015? Director Todd Haynes decided to make a family friendly adaptation of Brian Selznick's book, albeit still very much a Haynesian film. Where Carol laid bare its emotional power consistently throughout, Wonderstruck holds off its biggest emotional revelations until the final act.

The narrative of the film is split between two time periods, 1977 and 1927. In 1977, we follow Benji (Oakes Fegley) as he is mourning the death of his mother when he is struck by lightning and goes deaf. When he awakes in the hospital he decides to find his father in New York, someone he doesn't know at all. In 1927, a young girl named Rose (deaf actress Millicent Simmonds) flees her father in search of a silent film star (Julianne Moore). The film cuts between these two stories like dueling pianos until finally culminating to show us how the two young deaf children are mute.

Rose's story is stunning. Shot in black and white and often featuring nothing on the soundtrack but Carter Burwell's great score, these scenes are Haynes at his best. There is a heartbreaking scene where Rose goes to see a silent movie and on her way out a sign is being raised to announce the invention of sound in the movies. We understand that the silent cinema world was her only place to feel normal. The scene adds to Haynes' many beautiful metaphors for the queer experience. However, this sequence may be his best.

The segments following Benji are less captivating. I think this is by design as they serve to move both plots along and ultimately bring the stories biggest themes to light. However, the young actor Oakes Fegley isn't a strong performer. Unlike Simmonds who seems so natural, his performance feels stilted and calculated. Given the amount of screen time he has, the film suffers a bit as a result.

When sound and vision collide in Wonderstruck, the film achieves incredible beauty. Burwell's score is wonderfully expressive. Ed Lachman's cinematography is warm and constantly ties the two stories together with clever visual cues.

Still, there is a slump in the middle of Wonderstruck that can't help but be felt. The film perhaps waits to long to reveal the emotional heft behind how the Rose and Benji relate to each other. Then once it does, its big hearted sentimentality gets the better of it. Nevertheless, Wonderstruck is easy to recommend as it contains great beauty and a big heart.

3.5/5