Wonder

Wonder is a sentimental family film. While it's not devoid of clichés, these are offset by solid performances and a winsome, uplifting story told with tenderness.

Wonder is a well-crafted, well-intentioned movie. But it also downplays some important economic, emotional, medical, and psychological realities...it missed a chance to better represent the experiences of children who are already so widely misunderstood.

It sometimes over-plays its hand but, anchored by a terrific Jacob Tremblay, Wonder is a warm persuasive argument for tolerance.

It's a little mawkish, but Chbosky, a YA institution himself, has a gift for understanding young people and the nuances of their relationships.

If in the end the film feels a little too tidy, a little too contrived in the way the plot elements are neatly sewn together, this is perhaps a small price to pay for a film with its heart firmly in the right place.

Nonetheless, Hollywood rules in the end and it's very much a soft-focus view of a family under stress.

Between that life lesson of choosing kindness and many invaluable others, the film's buoyant messages are the moving jolt of empathy this generation needs.

While the film's success has shone an important light on disability, the casting controversies, inability to let Auggie be a real person and inspiration porn messaging verge on insufferable. Wonder desperately wants you to cry. I did not.

For a picture that begs to be drowned in sentimental syrup, Wonder feels emotionally honest rather than willfully manipulative.

Wonder shows just how superficial some differences can be and the wonderful things that can happen between people when we get past those differences to get to know each other...