Wonderstruck (2017)

This visual masterpiece gracefully weaves together stories of a grieving 1977 boy and a willful deaf 1927 girl, both 12 years old, both eventually enchanted with New York's Museum of Natural History. We loved it. Not having read the book, we didn't know that Ben's story was written in words, while Rose's was all in pictures, so that explains why the 1927 scenes are wordless (and black and white). Jack pointed out that the movie is not sensitive to visual impairments, with lots of dark photography, tight moving close-ups, and blurred shots that focus just before cutting away, if at all. I have very good vision and had to concentrate to catch it all.

The kids are wonderful actors. Oakes Fegley (he turned 13 on Saturday and has a handful of credits over the past six years, including This Is Where I Leave You and three episodes of Boardwalk Empire) gives us Ben's anxiety to a T and Millicent Simmonds (now 14, in her acting debut) is actually deaf and shows Rose's impatience and disregard for authority. Some of the adults are played by Julianne Moore (last blogged for Maggie's Plan), Michelle Williams (earned her fourth Oscar nomination for Manchester by the Sea), and James Urbaniak (he has over 100 credits but seldom stars--in American Splendor (2003) he played R. Crumb; I saw him in four episodes of The Starter Wife, one of Weeds, one of The Good Wife, two of Homeland, four of The Office, one of You're the Worst, and he's done much more. He did play two characters named Venture in 69 episodes of The Venture Bros. but we didn't see any).

Director Todd Haynes (most recently in these pages for helming Carol) works from a script by Brian Selznick (wrote the book which was adapted for Hugo), who adapted his own 2011 book (wrote and illustrated) in this case. Here's the book's official website. The aforementioned dark photography is from Edward Lachman (also shot Carol) and the detail in the shots as well as in the drawings seen onscreen is remarkable. The depictions of 1977 Times Square (when it was still filthy and dangerous) and other New York locations are just great.

Carter Burwell's (last blogged for scoring Goodbye Christopher Robin) lovely score is mostly played over Rose's scenes and can be streamed from this youtube link. Fifty years later we get pop tunes, especially David Bowie's Space Oddity and more, available to stream from here, with misspellings of Austin and Deodato. As a musician, I have a good ear, and the Langley Schools Music Project recording of Space Oddity, played over the closing credits, which you can stream from the pop tunes link, is jarring for its discordance, especially towards the end. This wiki page about the Project gives me an idea why.

Jack and I liked this better than Rotten Tomatoes' critics at 72% and its audiences at 68 and think it should be seen on a big screen. It will be difficult to watch on video at home unless you can get your living room very dark and can sit back from the TV if you are afflicted with MPMS or Motion-picture-motion-sickness. It's going on the list. We recommend it highly for middle schoolers and up.