Synopsis: Ben and Rose are children from two different eras who secretly wish that their lives were different. Ben longs for the father he’s never known, while Rose dreams of a mysterious actress whose life she chronicles in a scrapbook. When Ben discovers a puzzling clue and Rose reads an enticing headline, they both set out on epic quests to find what they’re missing.
Cast: Oakes Fegley, Julianne Moore, Michelle Williams, Millicent Simmonds, Jaden Michael, Tom Noonan, Cory Michael Smith
Screenplay: Brian Selznick
Directed by: Todd Haynes

Told in two separate stories, with two distinctive style, Todd Haynes’ follow-up to CAROL, WONDERSTRUCK really is ambitious. One is a black and white silent film set in 1920’s New York, while the parallel is a ‘groovier’ orange-tinted tale set in New York in the 70s. Both stories seemed to have nothing in common, but they are interlinked through a common theme; two children’s exploration of their identities. How Haynes made the narrative going back and forth is not always smooth, but pretty easy to follow and never felt jarring.

Brian Selznick (who also wrote The Invention of Hugo Cabret, which then adapted to HUGO by Scorsese) wrote the screenplay based on his own book of the same name. The stories are filled with many coincidences, which I think is a part of the whole theme, and probably as a way to connect between timelines. But for me, in some instance they felt too forced and a bit underdeveloped.

I don’t mean to be cruel, but having seen a lot of great child actors this year, the kids’ performances here are not really that outstanding. Not saying that they’re bad, though. Also, it’s refreshing to see one of the leads, Millicent Simmonds is a real deaf actress making her screen debut, and she’s actually the better performers out of the bunch. Too bad that Moore and Williams’ performances are too short to really have any impact.

Haynes and Selznick took a very long time to really draw the parallels between the two stories. It’s too dragging for me to care about these kids’ self-discoveries. But thankfully the visual here is gorgeous and the lush score by Carter Burwell really needs more recognition. The heartwarming third act *almost* make up for the lengthy first two thirds of the movie, but not enough to make this a memorable journey. But if you have the patience for it, WONDERSTRUCK still have some good charms to ignite. [B-]

A copy of my review on Instagram.

℞.