Miracle (2017)

Directed by: Stephen Chbosky | 113 minutes | drama, family | Actors: Jacob Tremblay, Owen Wilson, Izabela Vidovic, Julia Roberts, Mark Dozlaw, Rukiya Bernard, Jennifer March, Mandy Patinkin, Noah Jupe, Bryce Gheisar, Elle McKinnon, Daveed Diggs, Ty Consiglio, Kyle Breitkopf, James A. Hughes, J Douglas Stewart, Millie Davis, Ali Liebert, Joseph Gordon, Danielle ROse Russell, Erika McKitrick, Nadji Jeter, Benjamin Ratner

Raquel Jaramillo Palacio worked for years as an illustrator before breaking through as a writer in 2012. Under her pseudonym RJ Palacio, she received critical acclaim for her debut novel ‘Wonder’. For the story she was inspired by her own experiences. In 2007, she and her son visited an ice cream parlor just outside New York. There they met a girl with Treacher Collins syndrome, a serious facial defect. Her son was so startled by the sight of the girl that he burst into tears. Palacio felt confronted with her own helplessness, because she did not know how to respond adequately to the situation, and that prompted her to write ‘Wonder’, a plea for an open mind with which she wants to encourage people to look further than someone’s appearance. As is often the case with bestsellers, ‘Wonder’ was made into a movie. Director Steven Chbosky, who also co-wrote the screenplay, made his breakthrough in 2012 with the fine coming-of-age film ‘The Perks of Being a Wall Flower’ and in this film also focuses on the perception of children. The anecdote of Palacio and her son in the ice cream parlor obviously got a place in the film, which regularly balances on the razor-thin edge of warm family drama and sugar-sweet sentiment, but thanks to excellent acting and sympathetic characters, it stays just on the right side of the line.

Isabel (Julia Roberts) and Nate (Owen Wilson) Pullman are shocked when their son Auggie is born; he turns out to have serious abnormalities in his face. Fortunately, with the help of plastic surgery, his face can be tinkered with, but he continues to look different from other children. Isabel protects her son by putting everything aside to focus on caring for him. In his first years he is schooled at home. But when he is ten years old (and is now played by Jacob Tremblay), he really has to believe it: Auggie goes to school for the first time. ‘Like a lamb to the slaughter’, said his father. Auggie prefers to hide his face under a Star Wars helmet, but once at school he will have to take it off. Kids are hard on each other, and Auggie has been the target of ridicule from day one. Bully Julian (Bryce Gheisar) especially has a crush on him. School is a hard lesson for Auggie, but fortunately his parents have given him a solid foundation and he is not easily fooled. Moreover, it turns out that there are some children who want to hang out with him. Jack (Noah Jupe) and Summer (Millie Davis) for example. But how strong are they when the bullies attack them too?

Miracle doesn’t just show what it’s like to live with a serious facial deformity from Auggie’s point of view. The (young) people in his environment also have to adapt. In the first place, there is Auggie’s older sister Via (Izabela Vidovic), who has always been a secondary priority since the birth of her fervently desired brother. And she has always done so without murmuring, because she loves her brother. But now that she’s an adolescent with her own troubles, it’s not always easy to have to play second fiddle. Her best friend Miranda (Danielle Rose Russell) suddenly doesn’t see her anymore after the summer holidays and her parents don’t have time to talk to her about it, because they are busy with Auggie. Luckily, there’s a cute new kid at school (Nadji Jeter) offering a distraction. In addition to Via’s point of view, we also see the events from Jack and Miranda’s perspective, although the main focus remains with Auggie. However, changing perspectives enlivens the film and sets ‘Wonder’ apart from similar films. Moreover, the shift in perspective also underlines one of the central messages in the film: the whole world is not all about Auggie and it is important that he himself – and also his parents, especially his mother – realize that.

‘Wonder’ clearly plays on the emotions of the viewer and the sentiment is a bit too heavy here and there. Especially towards the end it all gets a bit too much of a good thing. However, that does not alter the fact that this is a well-made film, with after ‘Room’ (2015) again a convincing lead role for the young Jacob Tremblay, who is unrecognizable thanks to the great make-up of the Dutchman (!) Arjen Tuiten. Despite the mask and the thick layer of make-up, he manages to add nuances to his performance, which is impressive for a boy of barely eleven years old. Tuiten rightly earned an Oscar nomination for his work. Incidentally, the other children, with Noah Jupe and Izabela Vidovic in front, also play excellently. Julia Roberts and Owen Wilson have a great chemistry together, but they are clearly second to none: this film is carried by the child actors. Wilson is an actor with a high irritation factor, but is fine here. Another fun adult role is for Mandy Patinkin as the eloquent and understanding principal of the school.

Although the story is full of clichés, and the sentiment sometimes takes the upper hand, the final verdict for ‘Wonder’ is nevertheless positive. The message that the film wants to convey is of course not the most original and is very much on top of it, but Chbosky manages to open our eyes: how would you react if you saw a boy with such a disfigured face? Put yourself in that child’s shoes, how must he feel? He can’t help being born that way. Instead of staring at, bullying or ignoring such a child, he deserves his place. The heartwarming of that message, plus the convincing acting of the mostly young cast, let us overlook a lot.