Florence Pugh as Lib Wright
ON PAPER, The Wonder might seem like your standard period movie — bonnets, hardscrabble lives, Toby Jones with mutton chops. But Disobedience and Gloria Bell director Sebastián Lelio’s latest promises a bold new take on the costume drama. First of all, adapted from Room author Emma Donaghue’s 2016 novel, it has a crackerjack premise. In the 1850s, Lib (Florence Pugh), an English nurse, is summoned to an Irish village to preside over Anna O’Donnell (Kila Lord Cassidy), an 11-year-old girl who has survived without food for four months. Some view it as a medical anomaly, others see the girl as a miracle.
“Lib arrives and, as a rationalist, thinks she’s going to uncover the hoax in ten minutes,” says Lelio, talking to Empire in-between final mixing sessions. “She becomes more and more involved and deeply connects with the girl. By the time she understands what is really going on, she’s prepared to do the wildest things for the love she feels for Anna.”
Lelio describes the film as “partly a psychological thriller, as Lib is connecting dots and trying to uncover the problem.” But at the heart of the drama is the intense, complex relationship between Lib and Anna. “That dual element was always going to be crucial in the film, the electricity that comes out of the collision between the two actors” says Lelio. “Florence is such a presence, that [whether] she could somehow be too strong for Kila was always a question. They made each other sweat.”