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Despite what the title suggests, “Wonderstruck” represents a rare disappointment from master filmmaker Todd Haynes .

It’s gorgeous, of course, with all the sumptuous lensing, rich sense of place and meticulous eye for period detail we’ve come to expect and luxuriate in from the director of “Far From Heaven” and “ Carol .” And it’s certainly ambitious from a narrative perspective as it jumps back and forth between two mysteriously connected stories—one of which is entirely wordless.

But the emotional payoff just isn’t there, despite a lengthy build-up of cosmic proportions, which ultimately renders the entire effort a twee exercise in style over substance. It’s Haynes’ most accessible work for a broad audience, though—and it’s definitely the only film he’s made that younger viewers can see—so maybe it’ll inspire folks unfamiliar with him to seek out his more challenging fare.

Based on the novel of the same name by author and illustrator Brian Selznick , whose The Invention of Hugo Cabret  inspired Martin Scorsese ’s fanciful “ Hugo ,” “Wonderstruck” follows the adventures of two kids who run away to New York City, 50 years apart, seeking answers and a sense of peace. Both are lonely and isolated; both are plucky despite their troubled homes. They also both happen to be hearing impaired. But they manage to find allies and figure out a way to survive through their resourcefulness and—as Selznick’s script not so subtly suggests—a healthy heaping of magic.

Ben ( Oakes Fegley , star of last year’s “Pete’s Dragon”) isn’t deaf at the film’s start. Living with relatives in rural Gunflint, Minnesota, in 1977, Ben dreams of the mother ( Michelle Williams ) who recently died in a car crash and the father whose identity he’s never known. While going through her belongings looking for clues, he finds a book about curiosity cabinets from a secondhand store in New York. Inside is a bookmark inscribed with a sentimental note for his mom. (Who hasn’t found one of those?) But as he’s gathering his things to hop on a bus and search for this stranger, a freak lighting strike leaves him unable to hear, although he can still speak.

“Wonderstruck” alternates between Ben’s story and that of a sweet, shy girl named Rose living in Hoboken, New Jersey, in 1927. She’s been deaf since birth (as is the expressive newcomer playing her, Millicent Simmonds ). But she longs to connect with actress Lillian Mayhew (Haynes regular Julianne Moore ), a film star at the tail end of the silent era, with whom she’s obsessed. Rose dares to leave the comfort of her pampered home life to board a ferry for the big city across the Hudson River.

But Rose at least knows someone in Manhattan: her older brother, Walter ( Cory Michael Smith ), who works at the American Museum of Natural History. Ben, you will not be the least shocked to learn, ends up at the same museum 50 years later—climbing the same stairs, perusing the same exhibits and hiding from the same kind of security guards who suspect both kids are up to no good.

In each case, the immersive visuals are far more compelling than the kids’ overly simplistic stories. Working once again with cinematographer Ed Lachman , costume designer Sandy Powell (who’s also an executive producer on the film) and production designer Mark Friedberg —all masters—Haynes recreates two extremely different visions of New York hustle-and-bustle in astonishing, vivid detail. Each section plays like a film that might have come out during their respective eras. The 1927 story is told in grainy black and white without dialogue as a reflection of Rose’s reality; the boldly percussive score from frequent Coen brothers composer Carter Burwell punctuates particular moments in dramatic, unsettling ways.

Meanwhile, 1977 is full of faded oranges and greens and teems with danger and squalor. When Ben steps off the bus and enters the Port Authority terminal—alone, in the middle of the night, carrying everything that matters to him in a backpack—you can feel the grit and grime emanating from the screen. The trash scattered everywhere is so prevalent and tactile, it’s practically a supporting character. But the friendship Ben strikes up with a similarly lonely kid named Jamie ( Jaden Michael ) provides a warm and welcome contrast.

Pity, then, that the movie’s many sweet individual moments and the increasingly tiresome back-and-forth structure don’t add up to much. A climactic scene that takes place at the Queens Museum’s Panorama of the City of New York—a massive, painstakingly crafted model of the metropolis in miniature—provides a breathtaking sight. But by the time we arrive there (and it takes a loooong time to arrive there), the secrets in store are essentially a foregone conclusion.

Haynes is still using his formidable abilities to explore the universal need for human connection, though— which is a wonderful thing, even in less powerful form.

Christy Lemire

Christy Lemire is a longtime film critic who has written for RogerEbert.com since 2013. Before that, she was the film critic for The Associated Press for nearly 15 years and co-hosted the public television series "Ebert Presents At the Movies" opposite Ignatiy Vishnevetsky, with Roger Ebert serving as managing editor. Read her answers to our Movie Love Questionnaire here .

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Film credits.

Wonderstruck (2017)

Rated PG for thematic elements and smoking.

117 minutes

Millicent Simmonds as Rose

Oakes Fegley as Ben

Jaden Michael as Jamie

Julianne Moore as Lillian Mayhew / Rose

Cory Michael Smith as Walter

Tom Noonan as Walter

Michelle Williams as Elaine

• Todd Haynes

Writer (based on the book by)

• Brian Selznick

Cinematographer

• Edward Lachman
• Affonso Gonçalves
• Carter Burwell

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Wonderstruck, common sense media reviewers.

Thoughtful, arty take on excellent Selznick novel.

A Lot or a Little?

What you will—and won't—find in this movie.

Although it should be noted that running away from

Several positive role models, including Ben's late

Ben has scary nightmares about wolves that wake hi

Reference to the fact that Ben's single mother had

Infrequent use of words/phrases including "shut up

Brands/logos seen include Pepsi, 7-Up.

Adults and one teen smoke in a couple of scenes. A

Parents need to know that Wonderstruck is based on author-illustrator Brian Selznick's award-winning novel, which follows two deaf 12-year-old characters -- one in 1977 and one in 1927 -- as they run away from home to New York City to look for family members and eventually end up at the American Museum of…

Positive Messages

Although it should be noted that running away from home -- even for what seems like a good reason -- particularly to a major city, isn't something to encourage, the movie has several positive messages. Foremost is the ongoing power of unconditional love between family and friends. Curiosity and a thirst for knowledge are also important, as is perseverance.

Positive Role Models

Several positive role models, including Ben's late, loving mother and Rose's older brother, Walter, who's caring, protective, and understanding. Ben and Rose are both brave, loyal, and devoted to their mothers. They overcome considerable odds (although running away isn't something kids should copy...) to find the people they needed to see. It's rare (and refreshing) to see protagonists who are deaf.

Violence & Scariness

Ben has scary nightmares about wolves that wake him up in a sweat. The city poses a threat to the kids on a few occasions, as when Rose is almost run over or when Ben is mugged the day he arrives in New York (his money is stolen, but he's not physically hurt). It's also slightly scary when the kids are on their own, especially when others don't know they're deaf. It's disturbing when the lightning strikes and Ben ends up in the hospital and also when there's a citywide blackout near the end. References to Ben's mom's death in a car accident. Characters yell at each other.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Violence & Scariness in your kid's entertainment guide.

Sex, Romance & Nudity

Reference to the fact that Ben's single mother had a love affair with his long-lost father. Some fairly skimpy summer outfits in the 1970s NYC scenes. Ben walks past a XXX theater.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Sex, Romance & Nudity in your kid's entertainment guide.

Infrequent use of words/phrases including "shut up," "crazy," and "oh my God."

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Language in your kid's entertainment guide.

Products & Purchases

Drinking, drugs & smoking.

Adults and one teen smoke in a couple of scenes. An adult has a drink.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Drinking, Drugs & Smoking in your kid's entertainment guide.

Parents Need to Know

Parents need to know that Wonderstruck is based on author-illustrator Brian Selznick's award-winning novel , which follows two deaf 12-year-old characters -- one in 1977 and one in 1927 -- as they run away from home to New York City to look for family members and eventually end up at the American Museum of Natural History. Like Hugo , which is also based on a Selznick novel, this is a family-friendly historical adventure that explores similar themes of family, friendship, and the importance of perseverance, curiosity, art, and science. There's not too much iffy stuff (other than the "running away" situation, of course), but the half that occurs in the 1920s is black and white and silent and may be difficult for younger viewers to follow. There are also a few potentially upsetting scenes, including nightmares about scary wolves, an angry-looking father yelling at his daughter, a boy losing his hearing after being electrocuted (via lightning), and a young character getting all his money stolen in New York City. Characters smoke, and there are a few uses of words like "shut up" and "oh my God." To stay in the loop on more movies like this, you can sign up for weekly Family Movie Night emails .

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Community Reviews

• Parents say (8)
• Kids say (3)

Based on 8 parent reviews

Great movie!

Fell asleep in the theater, what's the story.

Based on Brian Selznick's award-winning 2011 book , Wonderstruck chronicles the adventures of two 12-year-old characters 50 years apart. In 1977 Minnesota, Ben ( Oakes Fegley ) is grieving the death of his single mother ( Michelle Williams ), who died in an accident before she could tell Ben anything about his father. He frequently dreams of wolves. And in 1927 New Jersey, Rose (Millicent Simmonds) is obsessed with silent movie star Lillian Mayhew ( Julianne Moore ) and would rather make paper models of cities or attend matinees than attend tutoring sessions. While rifling through his mom's belongings, Ben comes across a copy of an old book called Wonderstruck and finds a New York City bookstore bookmark with the inscription "Love, Danny" inside. When he tries to call the bookstore's number during a storm, lightning travels through the phone line, rendering him deaf. Back in 1927, we discover that Rose, too, is deaf. Both stories lead to the tweens running away to New York City and, more specifically, to the American Museum of Natural History, which plays a key role in the film. Eventually, Ben and Rose's adventures in the city converge in an unexpected way.

Is It Any Good?

It says something about the power of Selznick's books that first Martin Scorsese and now Todd Haynes has lovingly adapted his beautiful stories into films that adults and older children enjoy. Like Scorsese, Haynes had never made a family-friendly film before tackling Selznick's unique dual-narrative story. In the book, Rose's 1927 arc is rendered via illustrations, while Ben's is in text; in the movie, Haynes tackles the contrast by making Rose's storyline a silent, black-and-white film with swelling, captivating music by composer Carter Burwell. Since audiences can't hear the 1920s dialogue, Haynes hired mostly deaf actors to play hearing characters. Back in Ben's timeline, we hear and see the bustling, gritty, colorful world of New York City in the late '70s -- except for moments when Haynes wants to emphasize Ben's new deafness. The contrasts are sharp -- color, sounds, and a full 50 years -- but the magical power of New York City (muggers, crowded streets, potential dangers, and all) is clear in both narratives.

The young actors do a terrific job conveying the frustration, curiosity, heartache, and wonder they feel (sometimes all at once). Moore, one of Haynes' on-screen muses and best collaborators, binds the story together, playing a character in each time period. Williams, who's always wonderful, doesn't disappoint in her small role as Ben's mom, who appears in several flashbacks. And each young main character has a standout helper: Ben nearly instantly makes a friend -- Jamie (Jaden Michael), a young Puerto Rican boy whose father is a security guard at the museum -- while Rose finds her much older brother, Walter (Cory Michael Smith), who takes in his little sister. Haynes remains true to Selznick's exploration of museums, curators, the World's Fair, theater, and the natural sciences, and it's such a joy to see a beloved book so well captured.

Talk to Your Kids About ...

Families can talk about who the role models are in Wonderstruck . How do they demonstrate curiosity and perseverance ? Why are those important character strengths ?

How does the film portray Rose's and Ben's deafness? Why do you think few films and TV shows focus on deaf characters -- and people with disabilities in general?

What is the movie's message about the importance of museums? Does it make you want to visit the American Museum of Natural History in New York City? What are your favorite museums?

Talk about how the book's dual narration translates to the screen. What do you think of the filmmaker's decision to depict the 1920s as silent? Did you prefer one character's story to the other? What did you think of the ending?

Movie Details

• In theaters : October 20, 2017
• On DVD or streaming : May 22, 2018
• Cast : Oakes Fegley , Julianne Moore , Millicent Simmonds
• Director : Todd Haynes
• Inclusion Information : Female actors
• Studio : Amazon Studios
• Genre : Family and Kids
• Topics : Adventures , Book Characters
• Character Strengths : Curiosity , Perseverance
• Run time : 117 minutes
• MPAA rating : PG
• MPAA explanation : thematic elements and smoking
• Award : Common Sense Selection
• Last updated : June 4, 2024

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Wonderstruck Reviews

The cast is incredibly strong. Fegley and Simmonds are confident focalizers, and Moore is as delightful a screen presence as always. But, for all the lovely adult performances, they are always in service of the young stars.

Full Review | Dec 5, 2023

It’s a very human movie that not only touches your heart, but reminds us of why cinema is such an extraordinary form of storytelling.

Full Review | Original Score: 4.5/5 | Aug 21, 2022

The film is never less than gorgeous, with beautiful images from Edward Lachman, both in color and black-in-white.

Full Review | Original Score: B | Aug 24, 2021

For a movie called Wonderstruck, I felt very little actual awe or wonder.

Full Review | Jul 21, 2021

What begins as a beautifully crafted flight of fancy grounds itself with a thud in the final half hour with a series of incredulous coincidences.

Full Review | Original Score: 2.5/5 | Mar 1, 2021

Another winner for Todd Haynes...

Full Review | Original Score: 4.5/5 | Nov 5, 2020

Todd Haynes' spellbinding book adaption is as visually dazzling as it is sensitive.

Full Review | Oct 27, 2020

This is in the lower tier of Todd Haynes's filmography, but when we're talking about the director of Carol, that's still higher than what many film auteurs could hope to achieve.

Full Review | Original Score: 3.5/5 | Oct 1, 2020

Wonderstruck is a sentimental slog, a movie with a sense of style but not much to say or show.

Full Review | Original Score: 2.5/5 | Jul 23, 2020

Haynes spares us slack-jawed, bug-eyed Spielbergian reactions shots, but he also denies us deep emotional engagement.

Full Review | Jun 3, 2020

The film is like watching a puzzle being carefully, expertly pieced together. It's not Haynes' best work, but it's a rare opportunity to introduce him to a younger audience.

Full Review | May 19, 2020

Haynes is doing something more interesting than reconstruction. His film, carried along by Carter Burwell's brilliantly alive score, creates an almost silent movie -- a wordless communion between two periods of time.

Full Review | Apr 21, 2020

Expertly written, well-acted, and beautifully shot, Wonderstruck is a stunning feat of technical artistry that connected with me on the deepest emotional level.

Full Review | Mar 30, 2020

Always one to dabble in genres and the visionary Haynes applies his handiwork to the silent era capably crafting an homage with perfect stern embouchures, silent screams and protrusive pointed fingers...

Full Review | Mar 12, 2020

In essence, Wonderstruck captures the mystery and innocence of a child in a big, unfamiliar world.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Nov 12, 2019

In the sweet, beguilingly innocent Wonderstruck, we get to witness this amazing capacity of Haynes once again.

Full Review | Oct 12, 2019

Constantly shifting and aligning motifs makes for generous subtext in this sweet, poignant film which takes pains to solve all of its mysterious wonders nice and neatly before delivering an ultimate fade out.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Oct 10, 2019

... Wonderstruck says a lot in a beautifully quiet way.

Full Review | Oct 3, 2019

Wonderstruck explores the awe, innocence, and curiosity of childhood -- even when surrounded by adult dangers and trauma.

Full Review | Aug 19, 2019

It is far from being wonderful and is more conventional than one would expect from a filmmaker like Todd Haynes, but in the end the positive ends up triumphing over the negative. [Full Review in Spanish]

Full Review | Aug 2, 2019

• Cast & crew
• User reviews

Wonderstruck

Tells the tale of two children separated by fifty years. In 1927, Rose searches for the actress whose life she chronicles in her scrapbook; in 1977, Ben runs away from home to find his fathe... Read all Tells the tale of two children separated by fifty years. In 1927, Rose searches for the actress whose life she chronicles in her scrapbook; in 1977, Ben runs away from home to find his father. Tells the tale of two children separated by fifty years. In 1927, Rose searches for the actress whose life she chronicles in her scrapbook; in 1977, Ben runs away from home to find his father.

• Todd Haynes
• Brian Selznick
• Oakes Fegley
• Julianne Moore
• Michelle Williams
• 78 User reviews
• 196 Critic reviews
• 71 Metascore
• 1 win & 35 nominations

• Lillian Mayhew …

• Dr. Kincaid, Rose's Father

• Otto, Museum Guard

• Pearl, The Maid

• Dr. Gill, Teacher of the Deaf
• Miss Conrad at the Museum
• Remy Rubin, Theater Director

• Stage Manager

• Window Dresser

• Officer Engel

• Officer Murtha
• All cast & crew
• Production, box office & more at IMDbPro

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Did you know

• Trivia In the book, the story of Rose is told alternatively without text but with graphics to allow the readers to experience Rose's story in the same way she felt escaping to New York City through her eyes and the silence of her life.
• Goofs When Ben enters the rotunda of the American Museum of Natural History, he walks past the mounted skeletons of the Allosaurus attacking a Barosaurus defending its young, as seen in the museum today. However, this exhibit was not mounted until 1991, and wouldn't have been seen in 1977.

Ben : How do you know my name?

• Connections Featured in WatchMojo: Top 10 Failed Oscar Bait Movies of 2017 (2018)
• Soundtracks Space Oddity Written by David Bowie Performed by David Bowie Courtesy of RZO Music

User reviews 78

• Oct 18, 2017
• How long is Wonderstruck? Powered by Alexa
• October 20, 2017 (United States)
• United States
• Official Site
• Official Site (Japan)
• Kutup Yıldızı
• New York City, New York, USA
• Amazon Studios
• Cinetic Media
• FilmNation Entertainment
• See more company credits at IMDbPro
• Oct 22, 2017

Technical specs

• Runtime 1 hour 56 minutes
• Black and White
• Dolby Digital

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Wonderstruck 's lush imagery can't save a threadbare story: EW review

Few filmmakers working today build whole worlds as immersive and intoxicating as Todd Haynes. From the lush midcentury melodramas Carol and Far From Heaven to the glittery glam-rock fantasia Velvet Goldmine and shape-shifting Bob Dylan “biopic” I’m Not There , every project is made with the painterly care and detail of pure, obsessive artistry. And he lavishes no less on Wonderstruck , even if the source material may not ultimately deserve his gifts.

A dreamlike children’s fable featherlight on character development and dialogue, the movie (based on Brian Selznick’s 2011 novel of the same name) is rich at least in singularly Haynes-ian touches. Who else would strive to introduce an all-ages audience so lovingly to the joys of David Bowie, Oscar Wilde, and the cult band Sweet — or shoot nearly half the film in creamy black-and-white 35mm stock so rare it had to be special-ordered from Kodak?

His musical and visual choices serve a practical purpose, too, of course, marking the parallel story lines of his two 12-year-old protagonists: shaggy-haired Ben (Oakes Fegley), freshly orphaned and adrift in circa-1977 Gunflint Lake, Minn., and watchful Rose (Millicent Simmonds), a restless resident of 1927 Hoboken, N.J. Both are deaf — Rose apparently from birth, Ben after a freak household accident. And both are in search of an absent parent, she the dazzling silent-film-star mother (Julianne Moore, in the first of two roles) and he the dad he never knew. Their quests lead each of them to New York City, and eventually the marble steps of the American Museum of Natural History — where, if this were a different kind of kids’ movie, Teddy Roo­sevelt and Attila the Hun would come alive to teach zany lessons on teamwork and togetherness. Instead it becomes a refuge, and another piece of the riddle.

There’s hardly a moment here that isn’t gorgeously framed, and Haynes seems to take particular pleasure in meticulously re-creating the Manhattan street scenes of two such distinctive decades. (His longtime collaborator, Oscar-winning costume designer Sandy Powell, is a maestro of flapper beading and flammable ’70s knitwear.) But even a ravishingly shot finale — Queens has never looked so enchanting — can’t quite paper over the weak resolution of the plot’s central mystery. And as much as Wonderstruck aims to capture the ephemeral magic of childhood, it feels less like true alchemy than a lovely, fussy jewel box — a cabinet of curiosities whose jumbled contents remain, in the end, just that. B

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Wonderstruck is a master class in making kids’ films, from Carol director Todd Haynes

It’s a beautiful movie to watch, no matter your age.

by Alissa Wilkinson

If you buy something from a Vox link, Vox Media may earn a commission. See our ethics statement.

Because kids grow up to be adults, giving them smart and artful cinema seems just as important to their development as giving them smart and artful books — to give them, essentially, a training ground for learning to approach the world with serious, sustained attention. But kids’ movies that treat their young audience as if they’re smart and capable of appreciating lush visual storytelling are rare.

Todd Haynes’s Wonderstruck is filmmaking par excellence and a great film for children to boot. Moving and innovatively told, it may even be too smart for some adults. Kids will get it just fine, though.

The film is based on Brian Selznick’s critically praised novel of the same name , about two deaf 12-year-olds living 50 years apart, in 1927 and 1977. Selznick both wrote the novel and drew its eerie black-and-white illustrations, giving the book an immersive quality that lets the reader sink deep into the story, and that is well-realized in Haynes’s adaptation. (Selznick is also responsible for the Caldecott-winning The Invention of Hugo Cabret, a similarly lush, immersive book that Martin Scorsese turned into the acclaimed 2011 film Hugo . )

Haynes’s previous films, like Carol and Far From Heaven , while certainly for adults, are deeply emotional and luminous — which makes him a surprisingly perfect fit for this material. Haynes is never afraid of plunging to the bottom of wells of emotions, and he does it so confidently that it never comes across saccharine or sentimental. He doesn’t make chilly, detached films.

Wonderstruck feels like a magical fairytale, though nothing about it is supernatural. Told partly in color and partly in black and white, the film contains long stretches that are virtually silent, with musical accompaniment (composed by Carter Burwell) that sometimes adds atmosphere, and sometimes punctuates what’s happening on screen, similar to how musical accompaniment worked during the silent-movie era.

The story is simple: Ben (Oakes Fegley) and Rose (Millicent Simmonds, who is actually deaf), having lost their mothers in different ways, set off to find the pieces they intuitively know their lives are missing. Even though their stories are set 50 years apart, their respective journeys lead them to the same place: the Museum of Natural History in New York, where they encounter collections of curiosities that contain unexpected revelations.

There’s a lot going on in this film, but that’s in keeping with its organizing concept: that the world is a kind of large-scale cabinet of curiosities (the collections of interesting things people used to keep in their homes eventually evolved into museums), and that our job, as we live, is to keep track of the things and people that are precious to us.

But importantly, though Wonderstruck has an embedded lesson — about how having the courage to both seek answers and connect with others is what makes us grow up — the film doesn’t state that lesson outright. Instead, it trusts its audience, adult and child alike, to feel its theme, to knit themselves into its multigenerational fabric.

And it does so with the kind of artistic integrity that’s rare in films aimed at kids, who too often get the cinematic short stick, talked down to by the grown-ups who think they know what kids want in a movie. Haynes, instead, simply decided to see the world like one.

Wonderstruck premiered at the Cannes Film Festival on May 18. It opens in the US on October 20.

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Review: ‘Wonderstruck’ spins a visually captivating and fully engrossing tale of wonder for movie fans of all ages

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With its intricate structure and 600-plus page length, Brian Selznick’s “Wonderstruck” is not the easiest Young Adult novel to bring to the screen, and filmmaker Todd Haynes is not the likeliest director to take on any YA book, easy or not.

Yet, working beautifully together with a major assist from the visual team of cinematographer Ed Lachman and production designer Mark Friedberg, they have created a bit of magic with their production.

Selznick, who also adapted the screenplay, previously had the experience of seeing a novel of his turned into Martin Scorsese’s “Hugo,” while Haynes, whose work includes such unclassifiable movies as “I’m Not There,” “Safe” and “Velvet Goldmine,” was in uncharted territory with this one.

“My films are not always the most conventional,” the director acknowledged when “Wonderstruck” debuted at Cannes. “The thing that excited me is that I’d never done a movie about kids, a film kids could see.”

Haynes was also energized by the possibilities that the unusual structure of Selznick’s story offered. It’s not every book that tells two parallel tales half a century apart involving a pair of fearless and curious 12-year-olds, 1977’s Ben and 1927’s Rose, babes — not in Toyland — who run away from safe homes to unsettling Manhattan to chase personal dreams.

More than that, while Selznick tells Ben’s story in prose, Rose’s comes to us in exquisite black-and-white illustrations, pictures that are wordless because Rose is deaf and does not speak. (In an additional wrinkle, Ben becomes deaf after an accident early in the story.)

Working from Selznick’s script and complementing Friedberg’s exceptional re-creation of two different periods, Lachman, a Haynes veteran, has employed two different visual approaches here.

Ben’s story is shot in gritty urban color reminiscent of “Midnight Cowboy” and “The French Connection,” while Rose’s tale is a silent movie shot in luminous black and white, such a rare occurrence that the 35 mm film stock had to be special-ordered from Kodak.

Like any good tale of marvels, “Wonderstruck” has elaborately worked out parallels, both visual and narrative, between its two stories — intricate, artful coincidences that we can believe in.

And it has a through-line of emotion that connects them with each other and the audience.

Met first is Ben, living in Gunflint, Minn., and with his young life in tatters, someone not surprisingly subject to nightmares of being pursued by wolves.

Ben’s mother, Elaine, has just died in a car crash (Michelle Williams plays her in flashback), and the boy, who has never been told who his absent father is, is living unhappily with his aunt and her kids.

Sneaking into his old house, Ben (Oakes Fegley) is the victim of a bizarre accident that takes away his hearing in an instant.

He also comes across a book called “Wonderstruck” about cabinets of wonder as the ancestors of modern museums. A bookmark with a note on it from Kincaid Books in Manhattan feels like a clue to his father’s identity, so as soon as he can, Ben sneaks away and boards a bus for New York.

Fifty years earlier, just across the river in Hoboken, N.J., young Rose (Millicent Simmonds) also has her eye on Manhattan.

Deaf from birth though a stranger to sign language (both she and Ben communicate with others using written notes), Rose is fixated on silent film star Lillian Mayhew (Haynes veteran Julianne Moore). Rose finds out that the actress will be appearing on the Broadway stage and intrepidly heads into the big city to try and find her.

In addition to narrative parallels that keep getting stronger, the alternating pair of stories in “Wonderstruck” are linked by visual cues as well. When Rose puts a paper boat into the East River, for instance, the film cuts almost immediately to a shot of a wooden boat on the water in Gunflint.

Another parallel is that both youngsters end up spending considerable time in Manhattan’s American Museum of Natural History, especially the institution’s iconic animal habitat dioramas.

Though Moore and the other adult actors acquit themselves well, the task of carrying “Wonderstruck” falls to the children on-screen. That Fegley does well is no surprise to those who saw him in “Pete’s Dragon,” but Simmonds’ work is another story.

An exceptionally self-possessed and gifted performer who is herself deaf, Simmonds had mainly done stage work before was discovered in a nationwide search. With an expressive face and a vibrant personality, she is alive on-screen in the most wonderful way.

Though it takes its time, “Wonderstruck” — like the best tales of wonder — resolves all its mysteries as the plot’s disparate strands come together in a lovely way. “I need you to be patient with this story,” a key character says to young Ben, and it’s good advice for those of us in the audience as well.

------------

‘Wonderstruck’

Rating: PG for thematic elements and smoking

Running time: 1 hour, 55 minutes

Playing: ArcLight, Hollywood, Landmark, West Los Angeles

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‘Wonderstruck’ Is a Wonderfully Experimental “Children’s Movie”

Todd Haynes’s adventurous, mysterious film is about sights and sounds, textures and colors, objects, feelings, and memories—and above all, discovery

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Have you ever gotten lost in a museum—or seen a movie that made you wish you had? Wonderstruck , Todd Haynes’s magical new film, is one such movie. Based on Brian Selznick’s 2011 children’s book of the same name, Wonderstruck tells the story of two children separated by time and, initially, by space—but brought together by a history of feeling.

In Hoboken, in 1927, a young deaf girl named Rose keeps skipping school to catch silent films starring her favorite movie star, the fictional Lillian Mayhew. One day, after an altercation with her mean-tempered father, Rose escapes by ferry to New York City to find the actress, whose connection to Rose’s life is richer than it initially seems. Meanwhile, in 1977, in Gunflint Lake, Minnesota, a boy named Ben is still mourning the death of his mother when, in a freak accident, he too goes deaf, and his entire world shifts on its axis. Ben has long wondered about the identity of his father; his mother’s death leaves that question unresolved. But Ben has clues, among them a bookmark inscripted, “Love, Daniel”—a possession of his mother’s that he carries with him everywhere like a talisman. Like Rose, Ben sets out on a journey—and like Rose, it’s a journey to the heart of New York.

That sort of sums the movie up, but not really. It tells you the story, but Wonderstruck , a movie about discovery above all else, is not really an experience that hinges so much on plot. This is a movie premised, instead, on guiding us through an array of sensations. It’s about sights and sounds, textures and colors, objects, feelings, and memories. The movie opens with a boy dreaming of wolves: a blue, ravenously assembled collage of images that bespeak horror as much as wonder. It ends two hours later with a family history told museum-style, through dioramas and moving figurines, as if the story of one’s ancestry were both living history and exhibit. Everything explored in between—from the encroaching death of silent movies and the New York City blackout of 1977 to a sensitive study of hearing and deaf communication across the century—is crafted with the same sense of affection and daring as the movie’s more experimental bits.

This is all clear from the start. In Wonderstruck ’s opening minutes, we experience both a flashback and a separate 50-year leap backward in time, quickly and easily switching to and fro between Rose’s and Ben’s separate narrative currents while also, within Ben’s story, hopping back and forth through time. It sounds complicated, but the stable, rockaby rhythm of it is more seductive than confusing. You of course immediately wonder what these two kids—similar in their loneliness but occupying utterly distinct contexts—have to do with each other. And as conceived by Haynes, that’s a question only heightened by the look and style of each story, with Rose’s 1927 half filmed in grainy black-and-white and Ben’s in the grit-rich, gently verging on pulpy tones familiar to ’70s New York.

It’s an odd, adventurous tapestry. Rose, played by the magnificently expressive deaf actress Millicent Simmonds, lives in a silent movie. Her father is a tyrant. This half of the movie lacks dialogue and is instead rife with big gestures, sound effects, and jaunty music, but you don’t need to hear what Rose’s father says to know that his aversion to her disability sums up the era. And what a curious era it is, taking place right on the cusp of Rose’s passion—movies—getting modernized. The year 1927 marks an early moment in the sound era, and with it, a radical shift in access for people like Rose. In her notebook she writes things like “Help” and “Where Do I Belong?,” then tears out the paper and makes paper boats. Ben ( Pete’s Dragon’ s Oakes Fegley), meanwhile, feels similarly lost in 1977, especially when he gets struck by lightning and loses his hearing. His adventure really gets going when he lands in a loud, diverse, hot New York and, randomly following a kid he meets, winds up on a path to discovering the history of his family.

It’s no wonder the movie’s centerpieces are the American Museum of Natural History, in Manhattan, and the Queens Museum, because Wonderstruck is its own museum of natural, artistic, and specifically New York–centered wonders. And Todd Haynes, working alongside an A-team of collaborators (among them cinematographer Ed Lachman and composer Carter Burwell), is its curator-in-chief. He pulls from everywhere, just as his deft, alert camera seems equipped to see everything, especially when following the whims and wonders of children. Each story is designed to match “the era” in some way, which is a trick Haynes explores in pretty much all of his movies. But Wonderstruck isn’t really another one of Haynes’s mind tricks, à la Far From Heaven or I’m Not There , movies in which Haynes goes out of his way to reproduce, and throw into question, touchstone film styles, from the color-saturated Douglas Sirk melodrama to Don’t Look Back –era D.A. Pennebaker.

The artifice of it all has long held interest for Haynes. Wonderstruck is a little less direct. With only a momentary exception, the 1927 half doesn’t imitate what we have in mind when we say “silent movie,” despite its lack of spoken dialogue and familiarly comical use of sound effects. No, Haynes opts instead to take his cues from only the most harrowing, modern silent films of the era, like King Vidor’s The Crowd and F.W. Murnau’s The Last Laugh , whose visual grammar was instilled with a sense of awe at the newness and bigness of skyscrapers and the bustling new world. These movies inspire in Haynes some of the best images of New York I’ve seen in recent memory. They dare to remember a time when huge buildings were thrilling, imposing, and new, and when the bustle of the city felt newly hatched, a sign of the future. One of the most incredible sights here is the silhouette of a man speaking to Rose as, behind him, the enormity of a skyscraper pushes into view.

It’s the kind of image that steeps Wonderstruck in a tactile but mysterious sense of place—and of history. The images become a force that brings these characters together. Ben and Rose have a common language—Haynes’s style—that steadily reels them toward shared destiny. It feels as if their adventures are starting to mesh, as if they are exploring the same places at the same time and could reach out and touch each other. Haynes has always been remarkable at making the familiar seem just this side of uncanny. He relies on images of even mundane things to spark our curiosity. There’s a moment, for example, when a newspaper clipping flies out of Rose’s hands on the ferry and twists and swoops between the legs of the other passengers. It’s oddly heart-quickening: There’s the raw beauty of the sequence itself, which gently chases the clipping through its elegant twirls farther out of reach. And then there’s the feeling that Haynes has somehow instilled the clipping with its own sense of fancy, as if a piece of paper were, like Rose herself, following whims of its own. It’s just paper flying in the wind—why does it feel so much greater?

It’s remarkable, I think, that we’re calling this a kids’ movie. Not that we shouldn’t. Haynes told Film Comment that the movie tested wonderfully with children, and I don’t doubt that. But it’s simply not the kind of movie we typically give to children—primarily because we underestimate their intelligence. Brian Selznick also wrote the book that became the basis for Martin Scorsese’s Hugo , which is a good movie (especially for film history nerds) but not, to my mind, a satisfying children’s feature. Something about it feels too anchored to the real world—Scorsese flirts with fantasy and the fanciful, but the movie doesn’t really fly off the rails.

Wonderstruck , by contrast, seems to play by its own rules. Its high emotional stakes make sense, in the end, but it’s Haynes’s wide-eyed filmmaking that makes the job of guiding these young adventurers through a vast, complicated world feel like an adventure in itself. Haynes, mostly recognized as a leader in queer filmmaking, is reminding us here that his more specific interest is in outsiders—and in cinema’s ability to chip away at their lived experiences through subtle experiments in form. His filmmaking is as intellectual as it is emotional: He makes you feel the power of objects, glances, touches, and the rest. Movies are above all experiences. Every good director knows that, but Wonderstruck is a movie by the rare filmmaker gifted enough to show it.

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• DVD & Streaming

Wonderstruck

Content caution.

In Theaters

• October 20, 2017
• Millicent Simmonds as Rose; Julianne Moore as Lillian Mayhew/Older Rose; Oakes Fegley as Ben; Michelle Williams as Elaine; Jaden Michael as Jamie; Tom Noonan as Older Walter

Home Release Date

• May 22, 2018
• Todd Haynes

Distributor

• Amazon Studios

Movie Review

When Ben found the old book about New York’s Museum of Natural History among his mother’s things, it was an eye-opening revelation.

First of all, there were the pictures.

The hand-drawn sketch of a so-called “Cabinet of Wonders” from way back in the 1920s was utterly captivating to him. The massive cabinet packed with sculptures and taxidermy and other exotic antiques caught his eye because, well, it almost reminded him of his own room: every space and shelf packed with treasured collectables.

Second, there was the bookmark.

Ever since his mother died in that terrible car accident, Ben had felt lost and alone. But the bookmark he found tucked away in that dusty old tome gave him a sense that just maybe he still had a relational connection … somewhere .

“Elaine, I’ll wait for you. Danny,” was scribbled out on the back of that bookmark. Could Danny be his dad? Could this be a cryptic message from the father that 12-year-old Ben never knew a solitary thing about? Could there be a man somewhere out there in New York City who might like to meet his son as much as that son would like to meet him?

Third, there was the accident.

Just after Ben found that book on a stormy night in 1977, he picked up the phone to call the number printed on the bookmark. That’s when a lightning strike zapped him via the phone line. Ben was rushed to the hospital by his worried Aunt and woke up with no hearing.

But that freak accident also meant that Ben suddenly gained access to a bus station just across the street from the hospital. It was a bus station that could transport him to New York City, to that museum, to a book store, and hopefully, to a dad.

What Ben didn’t know was that 50 years earlier, in 1927, a young girl named Rose had run away on a similar journey of her own. She was seeking out a parent as well. She was deaf, too. And she would be equally astonished by New York’s Museum of Natural History and its Cabinet of Wonders.

Most importantly, Ben couldn’t possibly guess that he and that young girl from 50 years before were connected. They were tied together by a secret neither of them knew about … one that could only be discovered if they somehow managed to meet.

Positive Elements

Ben keeps a notecard, given to him by his mother, that reads: “We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars.” This Oscar Wilde quote becomes something of a theme throughout Wonderstruck . In the context of this movie, it suggests that we all share a common humbleness, but through our connection with others—family and friends—we can gaze up upon the beautiful things of life.

Part of that process for Ben is becoming friends with a boy named Jamie. Jamie teaches him sign language, shows him things of wonder in the museum and helps him eventually find the answers he’s seeking.

Rose makes a similar connection with her older brother, who finds a school of the deaf for her and helps her learn how she, a hearing-impaired girl in the 1920s, can fit into the world around her.

Spiritual Elements

Sexual content.

During a sweltering New York City summer, we see some shirtless guys and women in revealing clothing (including a few in clingy tube tops that expose their midriffs).

Ben’s mother obviously gave birth to him out of wedlock. And though it’s implied she fell in love with Ben’s father—a man from her past—she repeatedly deflects Ben’s questions about him.

Violent Content

Lightning strikes a telephone pole outside Ben’s house, and it zaps the phone Ben is using. He’s knocked out cold and subsequently loses his hearing. Rose is almost hit by a horse-drawn cart. She jumps back and falls to the ground. We see a newspaper clipping that reports that Ben’s mom was killed in a car accident. And we hear of a young man who died due to a genetically linked heart disease.

Crude or Profane Language

One use of “oh my god.”

Drug and Alcohol Content

Ben’s mother smokes, as does Rose’s mom. Ben’s teen cousin lights up, too, after she explores his deceased mother’s bedroom and finds cigarettes among her belongings.

Other Negative Elements

A thief snatches Ben’s wallet and steals all his money. Both Ben and Rose disobey their guardians, running away to seek out a missing parent. Rose rips a page from a magazine in a local shop and steals it. Ben’s new bud, Jamie, lies to his father about staying at a friend’s house, then roams the halls of a museum with Ben after hours.

Based on a 2011 illustrated novel by Brian Selznick, Wonderstruck is a movie that requires some patience. Its slowly paced story unfolds like it would if you were actually reading it page by page. Its back-and-forth-in-time tale of two young protagonists—separated by 50 years but tied together by their lack of hearing and a special secret—can feel almost painfully unfocused if you don’t encourage yourself to sit back, enjoy the nicely crafted period-piece visuals, and bob along with the flow of the film’s quietly flowing narrative.

Here’s what I mean by all that: Even though Wonderstruck ‘s storyline feels as if it were designed for young viewers—like the book it’s based on—this is not your typical kids’ movie. There are no explosions, fantasy flights or cartoon characters to be found anywhere. And some of the implied relationships and off-screen adult choices can, frankly, feel a bit too mature for the youngest set.

But for the right, thoughtful audience, there’s a simple and at times richly communicated message here about family, friendship and our search for something beyond ourselves. It’s a cinematic “Cabinet of Wonders” all on its own, but one that takes a bit of time to appreciate.

After spending more than two decades touring, directing, writing and producing for Christian theater and radio (most recently for Adventures in Odyssey, which he still contributes to), Bob joined the Plugged In staff to help us focus more heavily on video games. He is also one of our primary movie reviewers.

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Review: Well-crafted 'Wonderstruck' makes it halfway to magical

In Wonderstruck , two family-friendly period tales with cute kids aren't better than one.

Director Todd Haynes' follow-up to his Oscar-nominated Carol is a gorgeously crafted, spectacularly scored affair that pens love letters to the silent-movie era of the 1920s and the disco-laden films of the '70s. But the fantasy-tinged narrative of Wonderstruck (**½ out of four; rated PG; in theaters Friday in New York and Los Angeles, nationwide Nov. 10), which Brian Selznick adapted from his novel, is where the movie sorely lacks emotional connection. 

More:  Julianne Moore is 'Wonderstruck' by the beauty of deaf culture

Earlier: 'Wonderstruck' is an ambitious, kid-friendly awards contender

The concept hinges on parallel stories — with a pair of deaf children, one newly so — working in concert in different decades. In 1927, Rose (Millicent Simmonds) is increasingly frustrated by her New Jersey existence: Her beloved movie theater is touting the coming of talking pictures and her stern father (James Urbaniak) forces her to lip-read and speak. She runs away from home and heads to New York City to seek out Lillian Mayhew ( Julianne Moore ), a star of stage and screen whose luminous career Rose documents in a well-kept scrapbook. 

Interspersed with her journey is one set 50 years later with another youngster who hits the road. Ben (Oakes Fegley) is a Minnesota kid also in need of a change in status quo, after losing his librarian mother (Michelle Williams) and being haunted by strange dreams of snarling wolves. He yearns for the father he never knew, and finds a clue in a book that hints his dad may be in Manhattan. The freak accident that takes his hearing also spurs him to take a long bus ride to the Big Apple, and his quest takes him to the American Museum of Natural History — the same place that drew Rose five decades earlier, as well as in adulthood (played by Moore).

The black-and-white story of young Rose is magnificent:  Simmonds is a cherubic-faced gem , and she brilliantly captures the kid awe of witnessing a big-city landscape, a far cry from Hoboken. Haynes plays it very much like the movies Rose loves, with Carter Burwell’s excellent score adding grandiosity and complementing Simmonds' voiceless performance. When Rose’s dad yells at her, the angry orchestral blast is just as blistering for the viewer as spoken words.

Related: 10 movies you absolutely must see this fall, from 'It' to 'Wonderstruck'

Problem is, the ‘70s-set counterpoint just doesn’t measure up to the filmmaking artistry. It’s not bad, per se, but Ben getting lost in New York and finding a surprisingly loyal friend in a local boy (Jaden Michael) lacks the nuance of Rose’s path — at least until Moore shows up for a welcome injection of storytelling starpower. At the very least, Wonderstruck doubles down on Moore's typically impressive acting and lets Williams also shine via flashback.

Relationships are revealed and wrapped in a way that’s a little too neat, and the weak link is obvious (sorry, Ben). Still, youngsters don’t often get awards-season fare like this  that they can sink their teeth into, and Wonderstruck works best as half of a great silent film and, with Simmonds, the showcase of a star being born.

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Wonderstruck

'Carol' director Todd Haynes returns with a sumptuous, intriguing but slightly underwhelming kids' adventure story

Time Out says

Is this a kids’ film for adults? Or an adults’ film for kids? This exquisitely crafted adaptation of an illustrated novel by 'Hugo' author Brian Selznick lands somewhere in the middle, neither fish nor fowl. Yet whoever Todd Haynes’s playful and visually swooning ‘Wonderstruck’ is for, it still feels like a film from the director who made the brilliant 1950s romance ‘Carol’ and the dazzlingly original Bob Dylan biopic ‘I’m Not There’. Many of Haynes’s fans will enjoy unpicking its style, though others might find something frustrating and anti-climactic about where its story leads after some truly fizzing earlier scenes.

As present as ever is Haynes’s love of period detail, as he tells two parallel stories – one about a young girl, Rose (Millicent Simmonds), in 1927 New Jersey and one about a young boy, Ben (Oakes Fegley), in 1977 Minnesota. Both tales converge in New York, a city to which this feels like a love letter. Rose and Ben are both 12 and both deaf; her since birth, him after a recent run-in with a bolt of lightning. They're also both runaways from comfortable-enough homes, who are seeking missing pieces in the jigsaws of their families; both follow clues that lead them to the same city, 50 years apart.

Familiar, too, is the presence of Haynes’s regular collaborator Julianne Moore (‘Safe’, ‘Far From Heaven’) in two roles, first as a silent-era actress and later as an older woman. And there’s also Haynes’s love of indulging different visual styles and mixing them up in one film: here we get black-and-white silent-era homage for the 1920s scenes; the look of early colour street photography for the 1970s chapter; and even a whole sequence animated with models (nodding right back to Haynes’s late-'80s Karen Carpenter-as-Barbie-doll movie, ‘Superstar’) when the time comes to tie everything together in a big-reveal flashback.

If that all sounds exciting, it is – to an extent. Haynes lends the film an air of childish magic and Carter Burwell’s magnificent front-and-centre score adds energy and character. But there’s also something whimsical, simplistic and ultimately underwhelming about the story that powers this film’s stylistic games – so much so that you end up forgiving it because it’s ‘only’ a kids’ movie. There are stretches that feel ho-hum when everything you see and hear tells you that you should be overwhelmed with emotion. It ends up as a sweet-enough movie, and one that’s full of joy and invention – but also one that feels like a lot of effort has been put into serving a tale that maybe doesn’t fully deserve it.

Cast and crew

• Director: Todd Haynes
• Screenwriter: Brian Selznick
• Amy Hargreaves
• Michelle Williams
• Julianne Moore
• Oakes Fegley
• Millicent Simmonds

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Wonderstruck Review

05 Oct 2017

Wonderstruck

The last adaptation of a Brian Selznick novel was Martin Scorsese’s Hugo , a love-letter to the silent-movie pioneers who invented an art form from paper, wood and silver nitrate. Selznick’s beautiful follow-up book, Wonderstruck , was another puzzle-box story set in the early 20th century. But the two intrepid children at the heart of its tale live parallel lives 50 years apart, making it an odder and less elegantly cinematic beast — and Todd Haynes’ best efforts have not quite made its two halves sing together as they should.

We start off with Ben ( Pete’s Dragon’s Fegley), already reeling from his mother’s (Williams) death when he becomes the victim of a freak accident that robs him of his hearing. Neighbours take him in but, grief-stricken and isolated, he runs away to New York to investigate a note he found among his mother’s possessions. There he falls in with another boy, Jamie (Jaden Michael) who figures out at least part of the puzzle and tries to help the homeless Ben out.

Crosscut is a parallel story of the Roaring Twenties, as Rose (Simmonds) sneaks out of her wealthy home and takes a ferry across to NYC in search of her favourite silent-movie actress, Lillian Mayhew (Julianne Moore). When that meeting doesn’t go to plan, she heads for the city’s Natural History Museum — as does Ben for entirely different reasons — and the two children, half a century apart, fall in love with the exhibits and the magic of museums.

The two time-periods are meticulously, gorgeously brought to life by Haynes and his Carol cinematographer Edward Lachman. 1927 is shot in soft black-and-whites that somehow feel remarkably warm, while 1977 has a gold and mustard glow that Gustav Klimt would envy. The texture of the soundtrack and all of the period detail is lush, but ultimately it doesn’t feel that there’s as much substance to the story as there is to the world.

That’s no fault of the performers: Fegley is convincing as a young man who’s angry and confused by the upheavals of his life, but also brave and immensely likeable. And Simmonds, who is deaf, is extraordinarily expressive, drawing you in at once to her quest for a screen idol with barely more than a determined air and sheer charisma.

There are neat little echoes of each adventure in the other, but the reasons for pairing these two tales takes an age to become apparent. The film’s sheer good looks and talented cast will keep you going for a long while, but you’re more likely to be nodding off than wonderstruck by its plot.

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Movies | supreme court rules presidents have absolute immunity for official acts, but no immunity for unofficial acts, things to do, movies | in “wonderstruck,” two runaways 50 years apart head to new york city.

“Wonderstruck,” like all of Todd Haynes’ movies, feels like a meticulously constructed treasure. The parallel stories follow two deaf runaways 50 years apart who sneak off to New York City. One story, in black and white, is a silent film, while the other channels the bright colors and funky music of its 1970s setting. At one point, both children end up at the Natural History Museum, where they each place a tiny hopeful hand on the same ancient meteorite.

This is more than mere coincidence; it feels like magic. And yet, the movie — in all its painstaking fabrication — doesn’t entirely cast a spell.

The adaptation of the young adult novel by Brian Selznick, who also wrote the screenplay, dives into big themes. Ben (Oakes Fegley), in 1977, and Rose (Millicent Simmonds), in 1927, feel lonely and misunderstood, and both are mourning recent personal losses. But they’re sure salvation is in Manhattan, where someone is waiting who might finally appreciate them.

Minnesota native Ben, who just lost his mother in a car wreck, is searching for the father he never knew. After finding a bookmark with a personal message among his mom’s belongings, he’s convinced the piece of paper is a treasure map that will lead to his dad. Rose, whose strict father (James Urbaniak) makes her life a nightmare, sets out from New Jersey in search of her favorite silent movie star, Lillian Mayhew (Julianne Moore).

Simmonds, who’s deaf in real life, hasn’t acted in a feature before, though she emotes like a pro, evoking deep feeling without a word of dialogue. She embodies the title of the film, as she looks wide-eyed at the urban spectacles around her, letting us see the world through a child’s eyes.

Haynes clearly cares about details, especially when it comes to conjuring up different eras, as he did in “Carol” and “Far From Heaven.” He spends plenty of time following his characters as they wander around streets, bus depots and museum halls. We get to soak up the atmosphere, although this languorous approach can sometimes give the movie a plodding feel. Other times, the pace gets too speedy, particularly at the start, when the film jumps between Ben and Rose so frequently, it’s hard to become emotionally invested in either one. For all the story’s cosmic echoes across the ages, the pacing just feels off.

Still, the approach is inventive. There aren’t many greater risks than making a silent film in 2017, much less half of one. Though the story lacks some momentum, the mystery of Ben’s parentage propels the drama toward a gorgeous finale that includes thrilling stop-motion animation, not to mention a sense of balance as the two narratives finally meet. It takes some patience, but eventually “Wonderstruck” delivers real awe.

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Todd Haynes’s “Wonderstruck” and the Problem with Its Big-Reveal Ending

In the run-up to the release of “Blade Runner: 2049,” critics were asked not to disclose certain plot points that viewers might likely want to experience for themselves as surprises. It’s a reasonable request, except that the movie (which, for short, I’ve been calling “Blade Crawler”) offers almost nothing else of interest; avoiding discussion of its major twist leaves an empty shell of dystopian C.G.I. attitudes. In this regard, Todd Haynes’s new film, “Wonderstruck,” which opened on Friday, is even tougher to discuss. It’s a much better movie in a variety of ways, but it derives its entire identity from its resolution; avoiding spoilers is both necessary and limiting, yet the sheer centrality of the dénouement to all that came before is itself indicative of the movie’s over-all artistic failure.

“Wonderstruck,” based on a novel by Brian Selznick, intercuts two stories set in two time frames and centered around two different characters whose lives appear unusually cognate. The story of Ben (Oakes Fegley), a twelve-year-old boy from rural Minnesota, is set in 1977 and filmed in color and with sound. The story of Rose (Millicent Simmonds), a twelve-year-old deaf girl from Hoboken, is set in 1927, and it’s done in black-and-white as a silent movie, with several intertitles and a soundtrack without dialogue—only a musical score and sound effects. Rose, who is enduring the strict authority of her single father, a stuffy businessman, runs away to New York and tracks down her mother, an actress named Lillian Mayhew (Julianne Moore), who left the family to pursue her career, and her brother, Walter (Cory Michael Smith), whom she locates based on a postcard that he sent her from the Museum of Natural History. Ben, whose mother, Elaine (Michelle Williams), a librarian, died earlier in 1977, in a car accident, has never met his father, and knows nothing of him except that he gave Elaine an old book, titled “Wonderstruck” (about cabinets of wonder, described as precursors to museums), which contains a bookmark bearing the address of a New York bookstore. After a strange accident—Ben permanently loses his hearing due to a lightning strike—he hops on a bus to New York in search of his father, by way of that bookstore. Ben discovers that it’s no longer there, but instead finds the Museum of Natural History, one of the places featured in the book.

The film, in its substance and in its intercut construction, exists for one purpose: to show how the two sets of characters from the two time frames fit together. The entire movie is disparate, its two tracks of action merely parallel (though sprinkled with clues and echoes) until the connections, near the end, are laid bare. That’s why, for the most part, “Wonderstruck” is tedious: it’s less a drama than a puzzle that exists to deliver its completed picture, a column of figures meant solely to add up to a predetermined sum. The journeys on which its characters set out, the motives that urge them forward, the troubles that they endure and their encounters along the way, have neither dramatic necessity nor insightful observations about their times and milieu—rather, they’re exactly and solely the events that lead us to the film’s particular resolution.

In order to make those narrative details pop, Haynes flattens the rest of the movie, deprives the characters of characteristics, deprives the settings of allure, deprives the dialogue of substance. The movie’s children are merely functional, and deprived of the wild energies that might lead them off the track of the story: they’re clever, sentimental, humorless, with an angel on one shoulder but no devil on the other. As a result, the performances aren’t merely under glass; they’re virtue-stifled and fantasy-choked, detached from any context that has the detail or the intricacy of daily life. (For instance, much to his credit, Haynes cast Simmonds, a deaf actor, in the role of Rose, yet deafness is, in “Wonderstruck,” a symbol, sometimes a plot point, hardly an experience.) Haynes doesn’t so much observe the characters in action as he puts them where they need to be.

Yet, for all its emotional simplicity and narrative contrivance, “Wonderstruck” displays other imaginative delights along the way, ones arising from the deep stream of Haynes’s artistry and realm of personal obsessions, which, if they don’t quite compensate for the lack of experience that the movie provides, at least embody the powerful experiences that Haynes seems to have had while making it. He fills the movie with microcosms, reconstructions, books, and totems, turning it into a sort of cinematic onscreen archive in itself. The movie’s emphasis on the preservation of treasures and marvels outside their natural environment is reproduced in his own classicizing, archival practice of filming the silent-film era (actually, the end of it—there’s a plot point of a movie theatre getting its sound equipment installed) by making a silent film in black-and-white, as well as a silent film-within-a-film in which Lillian acts. (It’s called “Daughter of the Storm,” and it resembles Victor Sjöström’s “The Wind.”) The nineteen-seventies sequences, too, are archival in their way, thanks to the seemingly heat-imbued cinematography of Ed Lachman, who reproduces the look of classic Kodachrome and uses what, to my eye, looks like telephoto lenses, compressing depth of field and crowding the frame to convey the moods of a more chaotic and clamorous New York.

“Wonderstruck” is Haynes’s “Escape to New York,” a movie that fuses the children’s flights with his own city memories and dreams. With its film-history reconstitutions, Haynes is delivering his own two-part cinematic cabinet of wonders: an homage to the silent movies and classic movies that conjure, for him, both the art and the myth of old New York, and an homage to the jangling, street-sharp New York movies of his own youth and to the more turbulent city of that time, the cauldron of his own art. (The geographical fudges of the movie are distractions: the address of the bookstore on Ben’s bookmark is 2750 West Eighty-first Street, which would be somewhere in the Hudson near New Jersey.)

“Wonderstruck” may be preposterous, but it’s a work of deep intelligence; it’s possessed and consumed with the curse of this artistic age, namely, meaning. The movie illustrates Haynes’s heartfelt and seriously pondered thesis regarding the archive, the museum, the bookstore, the private collection: it’s the way that a person, or a society, copes with loss, whether of a person, a way of life, a tradition, or a craft. Haynes himself, filming his young characters, films loss and grief in action, and the characters’ archival obsessions as emblems of their pain. François Truffaut said , “The famous French advertising slogan that says, ‘When you love life, you go to the movies,’ it’s false! It’s exactly the opposite: when you don’t love life, or when life doesn’t give you satisfaction, you go to the movies.” “Wonderstruck” shows the kind of satisfaction that young neoclassicists like Rose and Ben and himself, museumgoers and cinémathèque-frequenters and repertory-house denizens and antiquarian bibliophiles and modelmakers, get from their obsessions. By collecting and cataloguing life, they are putting it in order, putting it back in order—they are taking refuge from the empty longing that’s their experience of the wider world. By reconstituting with imaginative recreation what was demonstrably real, they make it real again—they seemingly stop time and pull what’s lost into the present tense. The movie’s ideas and impulses are admirable and ponderable, but they seem calculated to be pondered and admired. It isn’t weak in drama but in experience; it’s as well ordered and exactly explained as a guided museum tour.

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Movie Review – Wonderstruck (2017)

October 27, 2017 by Robert Kojder

Wonderstruck , 2017.

Directed by Todd Haynes. Starring Oakes Fegley, Millicent Simmonds, Jaden Michael, Julianne Moore, Tom Noonan, James Urbaniak, Morgan Turner, Cory Michael Smith, and Michelle Williams.

The story of a young boy in the Midwest is told simultaneously with a tale about a young girl in New York from fifty years ago as they both seek the same mysterious connection.

The more I think about Wonderstruck (director Todd Haynes’ latest film, which is at once everything and nothing like previous works in his catalog), I still have no answer as to the intended demographic. It’s a family friendly movie that children really aren’t going to find much enjoyment in (a connecting secondary story is presented as a silent film that will absolutely test the patience of younger viewers), yet one undeniably impressive on a technical level visually and sonically trying to salvage a predictable narrative that will likewise bore adults.

Adapted from the children’s book by  Brian Selznick (who also actually wrote the screenplay for this cinematic version), Wonderstruck follows a 12-year-old boy named Ben (Oakes Fegley from last year’s live-action Pete’s Dragon remake) seeking out answers to the identity of his father. His mom has unfortunately passed and refused to talk about dad, even though his curiosity was reaching a breaking point. Come to think of it, knowing how the film unfolds, I actually don’t even agree with why the truth is being so secretly hidden other than for the story to pave the way for a grand 1970s adventure from the countryside of Minnesota to the bustling city streets of Manhattan, New York. The simplified “It just isn’t the right time” answer just doesn’t hold enough water.

Anyway, shortly after stumbling upon a juicy clue found in mom’s book titled Wonderstruck and while making a phone call, lightning strikes the signal, not necessarily hurting Ben, but leaving him deaf. Completely abandoning any scale of reality, Ben escapes the hospital (where he gets assistance from is explained and also excruciatingly bad writing), taking a bus all the way to New York with hopes that this bookstore from the 1920s is still up and running. Running parallel with the storyline is a similar tale from 50 years ago of a young girl named Rose (Millicent Simmonds challenged with no dialogue but remarkable in her debut performance) seeking out her idol, as previously mentioned, told completely in silent movie form and black-and-white.

Wonderstruck is beautiful to gaze at regardless of the time period; the attention to detail in everything from kids playing in the street, to graffiti plastered all over urban buildings, to hotdog stands and more all stick out when watching Ben wander the streets. In similar fashion, the direction takes advantage of the silent film aesthetic to create broad yet charmingly animated character strokes while sticking to old-timey nostalgia and aesthetic/sound flair to keep things moving, which makes sense considering the side arc’s true purpose. Then again, it’s not like the characters are that superbly written in the primary story either.

Still, Haynes knows what he is doing here, working with exceptionally creative editing to weave between stories. The whimsically majestic musical composition by Carter Burwell also adds to the intrigue and atmosphere, especially as the film will occasionally stay with the same piece of music when transitioning time periods. At times, Wonderstruck actually feels like a silent film in color. However, after a while it all becomes repetitive; you can only see characters going through different yet similar experiences in different decades so many times before it all begins to feel like a terribly executed gimmick. Again, maybe if the movie had a clear target demographic, I could be more forgiving in one area for the other. At least both child actors successfully create a great deal of empathy for their crummy situations, although numerous big names feel wasted.

Regardless, the running theme in Haynes’ filmography (which includes amazing works of art such as Carol and Far From Heaven ) seems to be exploring characters ostracized from society. During Ben’s deaf travels he befriends a lonely child eager to tag along for the mystery, and on the other side of time, there is a little Rose searching for someone that will care. Once again, that’s a thematic element an adult can latch onto and appreciate, but it only takes the story so far. Even the ending fails at instilling awe, as it’s basically a 10-minute information dump explaining what adults and very smart kids will already know. There is no emotion; it all falls flat. A film focused on imagery should reveal its answers with as few words as possible, not explain everything in one scene narrated over stop-motion animation (another attempt at masking the overall weak story).

It’s easy to give Todd Haynes the benefit of the doubt and just admit that Wonderstruck could be a fascinating children’s illustration book that is extremely difficult to adapt. If nothing else, the experience is beautiful with serviceable acting across the board. It’s an ambitious project that misses the mark, but it certainly deserves points for creativity and attempting to defy conventions in a manner that would please both young and old.

Flickering Myth Rating  – Film: ★ ★ ★ / Movie: ★ ★

Robert Kojder is a member of the Chicago Film Critics Association and the Flickering Myth Reviews Editor. Check  here  for new reviews, friend me on Facebook, follow my  Twitter  or  Letterboxd , or email me at [email protected]

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Movie Review: Wonderstruck (2017)

• Doug Hennessy
• Movie Reviews
• No responses
• --> December 2, 2017

I’ll start my review for Wonderstruck like this: If Wonderstruck doesn’t get a nomination for best picture this year then something is horribly wrong. It’s hard to imagine — and I haven’t yet seen — another 2017 film that equals or tops it.

Todd Haynes, a director known for bringing queer cinema to the mainstream with films like “Far From Heaven” and “ Carol ,” switches gears here bringing Brian Selznick’s young adult novel “Wonderstruck” to the screen with an intoxicating mix of cinematic styles that make for heady viewing. It’s the story of two deaf 12-year-olds, Ben (Oakes Fegley, “ Pete’s Dragon ”) who lost his hearing due to a lightning strike and Rose, who has been deaf all her life (Millicent Simmonds, actually deaf), and their coming-of-age journey as they travel through New York City in two separate timelines: 1977 and 1927.

Ben, in Gunflint, Minnesota has never known his father, so when his mother (Michelle Williams, “ Oz the Great and Powerful ”) dies in a car accident and he is left alone, he finds an old bookmark that’s from a bookstore in New York that was left in the attic by his father and decides to head out on his own by Greyhound bus to find this bookstore and possibly the identity of his dad. It’s 1977 and Haynes shows us the streets of Manhattan teeming with funk, jazz and addicts, making Ben feel like he fell into a nightmare. It’s a wonderful, metaphorical sequence as Haynes holds strictly to Ben’s point of view; all he can see are people’s backs and shoes, unable to see over their heads for street signs so he can find out where he is going; he’s scrambling around and can’t see the forest for the trees. We sense Ben’s confusion and fear about taking this journey.

Meanwhile, Haynes intercuts Ben’s story, incidentally told with sound and in color, with Rose’s story from 1927, told in black and white and without sound, like a silent film. Rose has found a news clipping of her favorite movie-star, Lillian Mayhew (Julianne Moore, “ Kingsman: The Golden Circle ”), who is in town rehearsing for a play on Broadway. She takes the ferry from Hoboken to the city to escape her overly strict father and meet her favorite silent-screen star in person.

The experience of these silent-film sections casts a spell that not only takes us back into the aesthetics of silent films: The hustling, zigzagging cars in the crush of traffic, as pedestrians try to cross the street wherever they can, but cinematographer Edward Lachman goes further, pulling us into the era, his images cast the spell of what it’s like to be a deaf child journeying through the city.

The finale of Wonderstruck is a trippy maze of interconnections between both kids that ends up with a beautiful sequence in the back-rooms of a museum where both Rose’s brother and Ben’s father used to work. There’s a breathtaking diorama of New York City on display that satisfyingly wraps up the story of two children journeying into the wonder of the world. A journey we are privileged to take with them.

Tagged: children , journey , museum , novel adaptation , parents

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Wonderstruck , a near-deaf experience, haynes and happenstance.

Two deaf children, separated by five decades and both searching for the same thing, are flattened by a train of coincidence in Wonderstruck , the latest period(s) melodrama from director Todd Haynes ( Far from Heaven , Carol ).

Wonderstruck *

File this under “were it not for coincidence there’d be no story at all.” Two deaf children (Millicent Simmonds and Oakes Fegley), separated by five decades and both searching for the same thing, are flattened by a train of coincidence in this period(s) melodrama from director Todd Haynes (<em>Far from Heaven, Carol</em>). Technically speaking, Haynes, clearly wanting to pay his respect to silent cinema, made the mistake of shooting the black-and-white flashback to 1927 in contemporary Panavision. And while Haynes' silent era sound mix was far more respectful of its period, the same rules clearly do not apply to the tone of his semi-audible ’70s. And for a film about the deaf community, there is enough rapid-fire verbal exposition doled out during the last ten minutes to make a sign-reader’s eyes smoke! There’s much in here — silent cinema, the 1964 New York World’s Fair, 42nd Street before its Disneyfication — that I enjoyed seeing re-created on film. Just not in this film.

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The Starsky and Hutch poster hanging on Ben’s (Oakes Fegley) bedroom wall announces the time frame long before the “1977” descriptor appears across the screen. We first encounter Ben at a moment in the boy’s life that finds him ripe for the orphanage. Mom (arrive late and you’ll miss Michelle Williams’s cameo) has died, refusing to tell her son anything about his father’s whereabouts.

“It’s never the right time,” bellows Ben. But who needs Mom when, as luck would have it, screenwriter (and author of the original novel) Brian Seltzer has inserted a critically placed bookmark in the even more crucial titular guidebook in order to set his preposterous parallel tales in motion.

After an electric shock causes Ben to lose his hearing, the lad flees his Duluth hospital bed and hops the nearest Greyhound to New York. Flash back 50 years to Hoboken, where a newspaper clipping, prime for one of Rose’s (Millicent Simmonds) bound scrapbook collections of Lillian Mayhew (Julianne Moore) memorabilia, leads the youngster to a legitimate theatre currently hosting a play starring the toast of Broadway and the silver screen. Wouldn’t you know it? What are the chances of Rose visiting the cinema on the same day that silent cinema died and the Vitaphone sound-on-film system is just being installed!

Dartboard transitions initially serve as linking devices between the two periods; a shot of Ben stepping on a ferry is preceded by Rose setting afloat a paper boat with S.O.S. pencilled across its portside. But about a quarter of the way through, Haynes’s artsy-fartsy juxtapositions give way to a series of simple, less-exhausting straight cuts.

One thought that came to mind during the film’s opening escapade: do deaf people dream with closed captioning? Do not try and adjust your screen. In order to give audiences the full “deaf experience,” the closed captions are burned into the DCP. Haynes even goes so far as refusing to subtitle sign language.

As a respectful tenant who enjoys watching movies well into the wee small hours, I’m used to closed captioning: I frequently hit the CC button so as not to disturb my neighbors’ slumber. (Though gosh only knows how one can make it through a Cockney kitchen-sink drama without the aid of CC.) Accustomed as I am to the appearance of writing across the bottom of the screen throughout the duration of the picture, it never once gave pause for wonder.

And don’t blame the closed captioning for getting in the way when it’s Haynes’s selective hearing and Dolby Deaf sound mix that are the real culprits. If it was the director’s goal to reproduce the “deaf experience,” shouldn’t the entire film have played out in silence?

Of course not! Silent movies were never intended to be exhibited without sound. From a sole piano player to a full symphony orchestra, there was always some type of music to underscore the ribbon of images. Haynes respects this, as the accompanying music and sound effects during Rose’s segment are all provided by an orchestra with no added outside noise. The same rules clearly do not apply to the tone of Haynes’s semi-audible ’70s.

Haynes is also guilty of turning a deaf-eye to the visual look of his flashback sequence. Widescreen lenses wouldn’t be brought into play for at least another 25 years. Stickler, schmickler: there is no excuse for shooting Rose’s story in the same anamorphic aspect ratio as Ben’s. Haynes clearly wanted to pay his respect to silent cinema. Were that not the case, he would have shot the entire film in color. When Rose attends a matinee showing of one of Lillian’s movies, the image on screen is properly masked in the Academy Ratio. Why the entire sequence doesn’t follow suit is a question only the director can answer.

Not more than an hour in the Big Apple and a fleetfoot homeless guy steals Ben’s cash, leaving the kid alone to wander 42nd Street. The next day, while in search of the store that corresponds to the bookmark, Ben just happens to meet up with a kid who just happens to be the son an employee who just happens to work at the museum that houses the key to the puzzle. I scribble on my notepad, Night at the Museum 4: Revenge of the Flukes .

Moore reappears in the color sequence, but so as not to be labeled a spoiler, I won’t reveal in what capacity. Let’s just say that Ben awakens in the bookstore to find Moore and the shopkeeper (Tom Noonan) lording over him. The two purposely don’t reveal their true identities so that Seltzer can keep the audience in suspense. That’s really unfair to frightened Ben.

And for a film about the deaf community, there is enough rapid-fire verbal exposition doled out during the last ten minutes to make a sign-reader’s eyes smoke! There’s much in here — silent cinema, the 1964 New York World’s Fair, 42nd Street before its Disneyfication — that I enjoyed seeing re-created on film. Just not in this film.

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• ‘Kalki 2898 AD’ Review: Prabhas Epic Is Terrific, Cathartic Fun

By Stephanie Bunbury

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The world is a wasteland, dead bodies illuminated by covering the earth to the luridly lit horizon, drums thundering and voices rising in a choral tide; Kalki 2898 AD is massive from the word go. Enter Krishna, mounted on a chariot drawn by four suitably apocalyptic black horses, to curse the battle’s seemingly sole survivor, Ashwarthama, for the sin of shooting an unborn child. Like many of the characters blundering through Nag Ashwin ’s stupendous Telugu-language epic, the valiant Ashwarthama lacks a moral framework.

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There is always someone claiming that the worst of times is now, of course; accordingly, in real life, there have been quite a few Kalki pretenders. And despite the date in the title, Kalki 2898 AD could be read as a series of allusions to current issues: its skein of plot lines includes a man-made climate crisis, femicide, the erasure of democratic freedoms and an obscene gulf between rich and poor. All that. Or, you can take it as a humungous space opera combining Indian mythology with bits and bobs from Star Wars , Mad Max , Blade Runner and The Handmaid’s Tale , whipping them together in a great cinematic froth. Take your pick. Either way, it is overwhelming. And this is just episode one.

Skip forward past the titles. Shazam, it’s 6,000 years since Ashwarthama stamped through that field of the dead. There is now just one city, Kashi, full of poverty-stricken grafters who scrabble at the gates of The Complex, the ultimate in gated estates – it is an inverted pyramid, so vast that the park on the flat roof includes an ocean – begging for the leaders’ indulgence.  These people would kill each other for an apple. 

Somewhere beyond the endless desert there is, however, a rebel settlement called Shambala, where the belief holds that a blessed mother will arrive one day to give birth to a savior who will set everything to rights. (What this film shows, above all, is how much myth is shared across cultures.) 

She duly arrives in the comely person of Sumathi ( Deepika Padukone ), under the protection of the now ancient Ashwarthama. In a plum bit of casting, he is played by 81-year-old Bollywood cinema legend Amitabh Bachchan , wearing the pain of millennia and looking very much like Gandalf. He even carries a magic staff that, like most of the props, is inclined to burst into flames. 

Of course, the monsters of The Complex are also on Samarthi’s tail, as is a battle-worn bounty hunter called Bhairava who hopes to sell her to The Complex. Bhairava is out for himself and the devil take the hindmost, but as played by the hugely popular pan-Indian star Prabhas , he is never less than likable, funny, impressively invincible and undeniably hot. Think Harrison Ford in Star Wars , with that cheeky grin; like Han Solo, Bhairava even has a sidekick robot. He may be a very naughty boy, but he has the heft of a hero in the making: watch this very large, very hectic space.

The designers of that space have, of course, had a field day. Like Kashi – or, indeed, like the world of Mad Max – Shambala is a mix of high-tech forcefields, knocked-together steampunk vehicles and medieval weaponry. There is a tremendous amount of spectacular fighting, often including flying; fist fights bring down entire buildings while leaving the combatants without a scratch. This is the art of the impossible, brought to us by CGI that, unlike many of its western equivalents, is given every chance to go large. Why try to disguise what you can celebrate? 

So this is how the world ends, not with a whimper but a great many massive bangs, battles and increasingly complicated alliances, betrayals and stirring songs. It is terrific, cathartic fun – and, given that Vishnu’s next avatar has apparently yet to be born, what is described in the marketing blurbs as the Kalki Cinematic Universe can be expected to rage, burn and rip-roar for a good few editions yet, leaving audiences happily flattened with exhaustion. What can I say? All power to that burning staff.

Title: Kalki 2898 AD Studio: Vyjayanthi Movies Release date: June 27, 2024 Director-screenwriter: Nag Ashwin Cast: Prabhas, Amitabh Bachchan, Deepika Padukone, Kamal Haasan Running time:  3 hrs

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‘Fancy Dance’ Review: The Search for a Sister

This debut feature about a missing woman on an Oklahoma reservation is an imperfect but palpably emotional portrait of desperation and hard-won hope.

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By Brandon Yu

“Fancy Dance,” the debut feature film from Erica Tremblay, begins where most films of its ilk might find their story’s second act. Tawi, a mother of a teenage daughter, has been missing for weeks. Search parties have been combing the fields, and her sister, Jax (Lily Gladstone), has struggled to get the F.B.I. to assist.

The ghost of Tawi, in other words, is a fixture from the start and hovers over the film. The empty space of her — we glimpse her only in photos and fliers — is intentional: This story about the search for a missing woman on the Seneca-Cayuga reservation of Oklahoma is not a mystery thriller, and the film is not meant to milk dramatic tension from her disappearance. Rather, Tawi’s case is all too common , and the entry point to what is ultimately a portrait of desperation, poverty and hard-won hope.

Hope, or the illusion of it, is worth fighting for because of Roki (Isabel Deroy-Olson), Tawi’s daughter, whom Jax has been taking care of since Tawi went missing. The two are close, forcing Jax between two poles: the hardened exterior that reservation life necessitates (Gladstone is imperfect, but well suited to Jax’s steel-encased tenderness) and the desire to preserve Roki’s innocence. Even as they commit petty crimes to scrounge up cash and continue the search, Jax assures Roki that her mother will be at the upcoming annual powwow, where there is a mother-daughter dance.

Tremblay’s film is not always graceful — the dialogue and acting can be stilted, and one hopes for a little more formal rigor — but it’s a strong debut undergirded by a palpably real emotional core and an un-showy sense of the reality of reservation life. Jax is often confronted by a push and pull in the same room: those ready to pounce and those offering to help. Each stance is born out of the same understanding — that the world is harsh, and not everyone can survive it.

Fancy Dance Rated R for language, some drug content and sexual material. Running time: 1 hour 30 minutes. In theaters.

‘A Quiet Place: Day One’ Review: Alien Invasion Prequel Arrives Full of Sound and Fury, Signifying Nothing

Instead of providing answers or much in the way of suspense, director Michael Sarnoski’s contribution stars Lupita Nyong'o as a terminally ill cat owner tiptoeing through a mostly off-screen apocalypse.

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As it happens, director John Krasinski’s excellent 2020 sequel flashed back to Day One, revealing the pandemonium the aliens’ arrival caused for unsuspecting humans, before jumping forward more than a year in the “Quiet Place” chronology. In theory, what “Day One” promises — but doesn’t actually deliver — is a more expansive look at the mayhem. Most of the action occurs off-screen, and no one (not even the authorities) so much as attempts to fight back.

What about cats? Is Frodo ever really at risk? For the curious, Sarnoski includes a tough-to-decipher scene where a trio of aliens feed on what looks like a feathered version of the ovomorphs from “Alien.” Perhaps this explains why the Death Angels are so aggro: They didn’t pack enough snacks for their intergalactic mission, and Earth doesn’t have what they need. But what do they want?

Produced by Jerry Bruckheimer, “Day One” is served up as a disaster movie, à la Roland Emmerich’s “Independence Day,” with money shots of the Brooklyn Bridge collapsing into the East River and deserted streets that suggest “I Am Legend” by way of 9/11. Where did everybody go? “Day One” makes it look like just a few hundred people call Manhattan home. Surely New York would be crawling with residents, pouring out of the skyscrapers and into the streets, or else retreating into their apartments. It’s Day One of the invasion, and the city is a ghost town.

It’s kind of a fluke that Samira agreed to come along for a field trip to a Manhattan marionette theater, led by a nurse (Alex Wolff) who should have worn quieter clothes. When the aliens land, they immediately start picking off the noisiest humans. Scream, and you’re toast. Call out for your missing partner or child, and a Death Angel is guaranteed to spring from off-screen and rip you in half. While the characters try their best to keep silent, the film’s sound designers do the opposite, using low tones to make the whole theater rumble (Imax and 4DX viewers can literally feel the attack unfolding off-screen).

In the two previous films, the thrill came from watching how characters reacted to these sinewy, double-jointed monsters, whose rattling, Venom-looking heads fold open in a series of flaps as they stop to listen. The terrifying creatures can’t see, but their sense of hearing is hyper-acute, which is why our world went quiet . For some reason, all that stuff it took humans 474 days to learn in the other movies is already known by the characters in this one (like using running water to confound the aliens).

As Samira hides out in the marionette theater with a crowd of strangers (including Djimon Hounsou, the film’s lone connection to the previous installment), military choppers fly overhead, broadcasting instructions: Keep silent. Stay off the bridges. Carefully make your way to the South Street Seaport, where ships are standing by to evacuate people. As an inexplicably small crowd of survivors move south, Samira and Frodo walk in the opposite direction. She wants that pizza.

Through it all, she remains more committed to protecting her cat — which is ironic, since the animal seems all but guaranteed to attract the wrong kind of attention. It is Frodo who finds Eric and leads him to Samira. Their instant bond feels contrived, though a more charitable viewer might be moved by this nothing-to-lose connection between two lonely souls — what writer-director Lorene Scafaria called “Seeking a Friend for the End of the World.”

To his credit, Sarnoski orchestrates a few high-tension set-pieces. But there aren’t nearly enough of these for a movie set in the “Quiet Place” world, as Sarnoski (who put Nicolas Cage through all kinds of nonsensical behavior in “Pig”) winds up putting sentimentality ahead of suspense.

Just compare these movies to the century’s best zombie franchise: “A Quiet Place” ranks up there with “28 Days Later” in its immersive, world-turned-upside-down intrigue. “Part II” was bigger and scarier, à la “28 Weeks Later.” “Day One” ought to have been the mind-blowing origin story, and instead it’s a Hallmark movie, where everyone seems to have nine lives — not just that darn cat.

Reviewed at AMC The Grove, Los Angeles, June 26, 2024. MPA Rating: PG-13. Running time:

• Production: A Paramount Pictures release and presentation, in association with Michael Bay, of a Platinum Dunes, Sunday Night production. Producers: Michael Bay, Andrew Form, Brad Fuller, John Krasinski. Executive producers: Allyson Seeger, Vicki Dee Rock.
• Crew: Director: Michael Sarnoski. Screenplay: Michael Sarnoski; story: John Krasinski, Michael Sarnoski, based on characters created by Bryan Woods & Scott Beck. Camera: Pat Scola. Editors: Andrew Mondshein, Gregory Plotkin. Music: Alexis Grapsas.
• With: Lupita Nyong’o, Joseph Quinn, Alex Wolff, Djimon Hounsou.

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Stephen King shares his 2 line review of 'A Quiet Place: Day One'

As well as giving Elon Musk a hard time , Stephen King likes to spend his time on X (formerly Twitter) recommending movies, TV shows and books .

His latest positive review? A Quiet Place: Day One , the prequel to John Krasinski's apocalyptic blockbuster, this time written and directed by Michael Sarnoski. Starring Lupita Nyong'o, Stranger Things ' Joseph Quinn, Djimon Hounsou, and a cat named Frodo , the film takes place in New York City during the initial invasion of the franchise's sound-hunting monsters.

"A QUIET PLACE DAY 1: The rare "big Hollywood film" that is both intimate and textured," wrote King in his post. "(And the cat steals the show.)"

Tweet may have been deleted

It's worth noting that while reviews of A Quiet Place: Day One have been generally positive , not everyone is a fan. Mashable's Kristy Puchko wrote in her review that the movie doesn't equal the sum of its parts.

"The love story at its core can't shine amid the required carnage and urban devastation demanded by the prequel's promise," Puchko wrote. "The performances — while earnest — can't find footing in the crude plotting. The scares, which once were grounded in character and uncertainty, lose their luster without either. With all this movie tries to wedge in, it's just not enough."

• Every single Stephen King movie adaptation, ranked
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Oh, and if you've seen the movie and still have questions (including about the cat!), look no further .

A Quiet Place: Day One is now playing in theaters.

Topics Stephen King

Sam Haysom is the Deputy UK Editor for Mashable. He covers entertainment and online culture, and writes horror fiction in his spare time.

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‘a family affair’ review: nicole kidman and zac efron in a netflix rom-com that charms despite missteps.

The Richard LaGravenese-directed film centers on a widowed middle-aged writer having an affair with a younger movie star — who happens to be her daughter's boss.

By Angie Han

Television Critic

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Throughout A Family Affair , daughter Zara ( Joey King ) and mom Brooke ( Nicole Kidman ) argue over just what kind of a man Chris Cole ( Zac Efron ) is. To Zara, he’s a self-absorbed movie star boss who oscillates between unreasonable demands and threats of firing. For Brooke, he’s an attentive lover, the first man to reawaken her to the possibility of romance since the death of Zara’s father, Charlie.

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The first Chris we meet is the obnoxious one. Onscreen, he’s the Marvel-style hero of a terrible-sounding franchise called Icarus Rush ; offscreen, he’s a vain man-child pitching hissy fits at Zara. He calls her at odd hours to send her looking for protein powder, and makes her assemble gift baskets for his dogs with her own money. He runs through girlfriends like tissues, then sends her to pick up his stuff from their houses. He strings her along with the promise of an assistant producer credit, but continually insists she’s not “ready” to do much more than pick up his dry cleaning. None of these gags are especially fresh — Chris is simply every spoiled Hollywood stereotype rolled into one. But screenwriter Carrie Solomon comes at them with the wry fondness of an insider who knows just how ridiculous her industry can be.

All this Hollywood satire is merely set-up for the real plot of A Family Affair , which kicks in once Chris invites himself over to the home Zara shares with her mother. While waiting for her to show, he and Brooke get to talking over tequila shots. The next thing either of them know, Brooke is ripping open the very t-shirt that Chris, only the day before, had screamed at Zara for not treating more gently.

At first, the hook-up is played for laughs. Chris remains his ditzy self, wooing Brooke from lines with his own movies. (“This time I mean it,” he insists when she teasingly calls him out on it.) Zara is so startled to find her mother in bed with her employer that she goes full slapstick, choking on a grape and knocking herself unconscious. Fumbling to explain, Brooke accidentally invokes the same excuse Zara gave her for getting a forbidden eyebrow piercing as a teen: “It made sense at the time when the guy was putting it in.”

In fact, A Family Affair barely leans into the fairy tale of dating a rich and sexy A-lister. In contrast to The Idea of You , with which it shares a superficially similar premise, the film is largely unconcerned with the specific perks or challenges of dating while famous. Brooke is unfamiliar with Chris’ career, and she does not need him to whisk her away on vacations or bring her to fancy galas; she’s done well enough already to have her own cliffside mansion and closet full of designer dresses. Though Chris can’t so much as go for a grocery run without getting swarmed, the couple do not discuss what it might mean to go public with their relationship — and they never have to, since it somehow never happens. The biggest threat to their connection is Zara’s disapproval, not the gap in age and social standing.

Parallels are drawn between Brooke lovingly tending to Zara’s every need through a difficult childhood and Zara catering to Chris’ now. I’d point out that those situations are not remotely the same, and in fact have no business being in the same conversation — just as A Family Affair ‘s Hollywood material and its drama feel at times like they’ve come from two completely different films. But the lines are delivered with such heartfelt tenderness that for a moment, you might be moved in spite of yourself.

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