August Pullman, the ten-year-old boy at the center of Stephen Chbosky’s Wonder, is severely deformed: the bridge of his nose reaches to his forehead in a straight line, the corners of his eyes are pulled down in a perpetual sob, his cheeks are traced by scars, and withered ears peek out from under his long hair. One dreads to think what he might have looked like before the 27 plastic surgeries he mentions near the beginning of the film. Auggie’s devoted mother, Isabel (Julia Roberts), has been homeschooling him since he was small, but the time has come for Auggie to join the world. As the story opens, he, Isabel, and Auggie’s gentle, laid-back father, Nate (Owen Wilson), are anxiously preparing for the first day of class at the local public school, where Auggie will be dropped into the shark-infested waters of fifth grade.
Wonder takes place in a school full of wise, with-it teachers and cruel, clueless children, which doesn’t really square with the more complicated social terrain I remember. The principal, Mr. Tushman (Mandy Patinkin), appoints a trio of kids, including Jack and Julian, to welcome Auggie to the student body, though they mainly pull away from him once classes have begun. Jack (Noah Jupe) connects with the new kid immediately but takes his social cues from rich, handsome Julian (Bryce Gheisar), whose personal antagonism toward Auggie progresses from smart remarks (“Do you eat special food?”) to physical bullying to vicious notes and cartoons stuffed into Auggie’s locker. All of that can and may well happen, but in my own school experience from kindergarten onward, hassling someone because of a physical deformity was considered obnoxious (and unnecessary, because in fifth grade you can get hassled for nothing at all). I had more trouble from well-meaning but incompetent teachers who’d single me out in class and invite the other students to pity me.
Directed by Stephen Chbosky
