Wonder

I have a great weakness for strong family dramas that occasionally introduce a subtle sense of humor. Even though they push all the usual buttons, lead me to the same predictable plot points, and I know exactly where they will extract tears from me. Auggie Pullman's entry to school is not like that. He almost stumbles over every cliché at every crossroads in the story, one we can see coming dozens of minutes in advance – and every time he swerves in a different direction at the last second. I couldn't help but marvel at how effortlessly this story, which has been told a hundred times, manages to surprise me as if it were a revolutionary idea. Stephen Chbosky has clearly experienced more than enough sadness (if you consider The Perks of Being a Wallflower), which I consider unfortunate. However, to write and direct it in such a magnificent form is a more than perfect catharsis for him. (20.01.2019)

It’s the kind of movie where you cry from start to finish, but at the same time, you’re laughing. It milks your emotions but it doesn’t seem forced at all. And I spent a lot of time thinking about it and I think this artlessness is mainly thanks to the parental duo, where Julia Roberts is completely cool as a mom of the wonder boy and you simply have to laugh at Owen Wilson, who drops a joke every time he appears on the screen; there is no other way. 113 minutes go by at a completely natural pace; the author doesn’t explain to you why that particular boy is so extraordinary, but he attempts to show you his fight with the world. And since it’s a child who wants to fit into a children’s world, the world is just a shade worse than that of adults. (24.10.2018)

Love Actually for school kids. It's an extremely saccharine romp, with about a fifth of the scenes extra or unnecessarily longer than they should be, and it should end about half an hour early, but otherwise it's an very positive blast that comes out of nowhere and surprises with its lightness and casual humour. Julia Roberts gives her best performance in years and Jacob Tremblay shows he is a great talent. Cloying and American to the core, but at the same time sincere and heartfelt. A great study of a school in a New York suburb and one of its middle-class families. (03.03.2018)

This is definitely a film that kids should watch and whose message they should embrace. But it's not great filmmaking by any means, as we don't really buy into the one-dimensional characters, and the sloppy narrative sometimes feels a little thin in relation to the whole. It's helped a lot by the natural performances and I liked the switch to the main character's fantasy, but otherwise nothing more than routine sentimentality for the whole family with the most expected possible happy ending. (05.02.2018)

When Wonder strives for a kind of subtlety (in about two or three scenes), it is just emotionally touching at 120%. However, it is shamelessly forced in a rarely seen way, for which Hallmark's production would be ashamed. I rolled my eyes, shook my head, couldn´t avoid biting remarks and ... But I really got into in eventually. God. (21.10.2018)