Wonderstruck **** (2017, Oakes Fegley, Julianne Moore, Millicent Simmonds, Michelle Williams) – Movie Review

Director Todd Haynes’s beautiful, magical and enchanting 2017 family mystery drama is a glorious art work as well as a lovely entertainment.

In the Seventies, a boy called Ben (Oakes Fegley) is left deaf after being stuck by lightning. He finds a book, Wonderstruck, with a bookmark that has the name of a New York bookshop, where he heads for, hopefully to find his father. The boy is befriended at the museum by another boy, Jamie (Jaden Michael), who helps him and becomes his friend.

Meanwhile in the Twenties, a young deaf girl called Rose (Millicent Simmonds) seeks her actress mother Lillian Mayhew (Julianne Moore) in New York.

The two stories run on parallel lines, with the two kids on similar quests separated by 50 years, but these parallel lines are going to meet as the mystery of the boy’s parentage is solved.

The screenplay is adapted by the author, Brian Selznick, based on his book. With the two main characters deaf, there is a limited amount of dialogue, so the film relies on style, images, ideas and expression. Something artistically bold, brave and completely different, probably unique, it all works extremely well.

Edward Lachman’s cinematography, with mono for the Twenties and colour for the Seventies, is gorgeous, Mark Friedberg’s production designs are thrilling, and Carter Burwell’s score a marvel. Haynes orchestrates all the elements perfectly. The three kids are great – they are little stars – and Moore is classy and special in a dual role.

Millicent Simmonds is deaf since infancy having lost her hearing from a medication overdose. She followed Wonderstruck with A Quiet Place (2018). Todd Haynes reflects: ‘Nothing was more central than finding Millie; having a hand in finding this extraordinary talent for film acting in this kid. Somehow she knows what the camera sees.’

Todd Haynes adds: ‘I don’t know that there’s a better living film actor than Julianne Moore.’

© Derek Winnert 2017 Movie Review

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