Wonderstruck (2017)
Directed by Todd Haynes
The story of a young boy in the Midwest is told simultaneously with a tale about a young girl in New York from fifty years ago as they both seek the same mysterious connection.
2 connections found
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2 connections, in both directions
What critics compared Wonderstruck to
It’s easy to see just why two of our greatest working filmmakers, Martin Scorsese and now Todd Haynes, have been attracted to the YA work of author Brian Selznick, who wrote the source material for “Hugo” as well as “Wonderstruck,” the illustrated book that Haynes adapts for his new film.
The film is based on an illustrated children’s novel by Brian Selznick, who wrote and drew “The Invention of Hugo Cabret,” which served as the basis for Martin Scorsese’s widely praised but — to me, at least — frenetic and overwrought gimcrack fantasy “Hugo” (2011).
This story of children finding themselves through their discovery of art and the past is adapted from Brian Selznick’s Y.A. novel of the same time, so it inevitably bares some resemblance to Martin Scorsese’s 2011 film Hugo , which was also a Selznick adaptation.
With Wonderstruck, the director turns his attention to the family film, using as inspiration the same author whose source material was the fuel for Martin Scorsese’s Hugo.
Adapted by Selznick and tethered to the birth of museums much as “Hugo” was to the birth of film, this mesmerizing and open-hearted drama charts the parallel journeys of two deaf pre-teens — one in 1927, the other in 1977 — as they follow the treasure maps of their personal histories in search of a place where they might belong, a gap that they were born to close.
Like Martin Scorsese, who made such a delicious curio of Hugo, Haynes has been drawn to the twisty textual games of Brian Selznick.
Haynes' latest is the festival circuit darling May December which is loosely inspired by the life of Mary Kay Letourneau abd re-pairs him with frequent collaborator Julianne Moore (Safe, Far From Heaven, Wonderstruck, I'm Not There) and Natalie Portman.
Haynes, working with Moore for a fifth time (after "Safe," "Far From Heaven," "I'm Not There" and "Wonderstruck"), sets a soap opera tone early on, with an overly dramatic score built from pounding piano notes and camera movements exaggerated for effect.