Wonderstruck

 

Wonderstruck 2017

• Director: Todd Haynes
• Seen by this director: I’m Not There, Far from Heaven, Velvet Goldmine
• Based on the novel by Brian Selznick
• Cast: Oakes Fegley, Julianne Moore, Michelle Williams, Millicent Simmonds, Corey Michael Smith, Jaden Michael
• Personal “oh yeah him/her” reaction, i.e. have seen this actor in:
• Julianne Moore – The Hunger Games Mockingjay, The Kids Are All Right, The Private Lives of Pippa Lee, I’m Not There, Children of Men, The Hours, Far from Heaven, The Shipping News, A Map of the World, The Big Lebowski, The fugitive, Benny and Joon UngerH
• Michelle Williams – The Greatest Showman, Manchester by the Sea, My Week with Marilyn, Shutter Island, I’m Not There, Brokeback Mountain, The Station Agent, The United States of Leland, A Thousand Acres
• Corey Michael Smith – First Man
• Why? It sounded interesting.
• Seen: 20 August 2021.      

       Gunflint, Minnesota. 1977. Ben (Fegley), twelve, wants to know about his dad but his mother (Williams) refuses to talk about it. When she dies in a car crash, he moves in with his aunts and cousins.

       Hoboken, New Jersey. 1927. Rose (Simmonds) lives with her severe and unloving father. She is deaf and idolises the silent film star Lilian Mayhew (Moore).

       The stories intertwine. Ben and Rose both run away from home and unknowingly approach each other across the decades and miles.

       It’s quiet, dreamy, bittersweet and eventually, predictably it ties together. A bit too tidily perhaps but it makes a charming fairy tale. The model of NYC is impressive. And there is that Minnesota connection. 

4* of 5