R | 1h 48m | Psychological Period Drama | November 16, 2022 A spare, Irish tale much akin to 1990’s “The Field” is “The Wonder.” It features the Emerald Isle’s patchwork of multigreen-hued fields, barren windswept heights, and soggy footpaths stretching as far as the eye can see, where the billowing blue skirts of bonneted women who walk those paths are turned brown with mud.
(L–R) Miracle child Anna O’Donnell (Kila Lord Cassidy), journalist Will Byrne (Tom Burke), and nurse Lib Wright (Florence Pugh). The nurse and the reporter have different plans for the child than the village elders, in “The Wonder.” (Element Pictures/Netflix)
Set in 1862, the script is based on the novel by Emma Donoghue. It’s not the Middle Ages Ireland that Irish Stephen of “Braveheart” claimed belonged entirely to him “(“It’s my Island!”), but it might as well be: There’s no electricity, acres of mud, sheep, and Christianity reigns supreme.
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