MOVIE REVIEW:

WONDER
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Submitted by:
Aliana Danielle H. Marasigan

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PSY100
I. MOVIE TITLE

WONDER (2017). Directed by Stephen Chbosky.

II. CAST AND CHARACTERS

 Jacob Tremblay as August "Auggie" Matthew Pullman

 Julia Roberts as Isabel Pullman
 Owen Wilson as Nate Pullman
 Izabela Vidovic as Olivia "Via" Pullman,
 Mandy Patinkin as Mr. Tushman
 Daveed Diggs as Mr. Browne
 Sonia Braga as Grans, Isabel's mother, grandmother to Via and Auggie
 Danielle Rose Russell as Miranda
 Nadji Jeter as Justin
 Noah Jupe as Jack Will
 Bryce Gheisar as Julian Albans
 Elle McKinnon as Charlotte Cody
 Millie Davis as Summer
 Nicole Oliver as Mrs. Will, Jack's mom
 Crystal Lowe as Mrs. Albans, Julian's mom
 Steve Bacic as Mr. Albans, Julian's dad
 Gidget as Daisy, the Pullman family's pet dog

III. SYNOPSIS / PLOT

August “Auggie” Pullman is a 10-year-old boy from Manhattan, New York. He lives with
his mom, Isabel, his dad, Nate, his older sister, Via, and their family dog named Daisy. Auggie is
just like any other ordinary kid, he loves ice cream, science, riding his bike, playing Minecraft and
playing on his Xbox. He also loves Star Wars and his favorite holiday is Halloween. But he isn’t
really that ordinary, he looks different from other kids. When Auggie was born, he had 27 different
surgeries just to help him breath, see, hear without a hearing aid and somewhat make him seem a
little bit “normal” looking. Auggie has a facial deformity which he refers to as "mandibulofacial"
which made him look a bit different compared to other kids. Because of this, he was homeschooled
by his mom until he got to 5th grade. Auggie’s mom, Isabel, decided to take Auggie to Beecher
Pep private school for 5th grade despite Nate, Auggie’s dad, being worried about how Auggie can
adjust to a school with other kids. Before the first day of school arrives, Isabel had an agreement
with the school director, Mr. Tushman, to give Auggie a tour by also inviting three other kids with
him. Mr. Tushman introduced Auggie to Jack Will, Julian and Charlotte and asked the three kids
to tout Auggie through the school. While going through the tour, Auggie was asked “rude”
questions mostly by Julian even though Auggie was being quiet most of the tour. Jack Will and
Charlotte on the other hand were friendly to Auggie during the tour. Out of all the places of the
school, Auggie loved the Science lab the most since he loves Science and has never been into one.
After the tour Auggie went home with his mom and was asked during dinner how his day was. He
said that he wants to continue to go to school because he loved the Science lab there. First day of
school arrived, Auggie’s whole family took him to school and gave him reminders before going
into the class. Auggie entered his first class with Mr. Browne as their homeroom teacher, and of
course with his classmates including Jack, Charlotte and Julian. The first activity that they did was
introducing themselves by saying 2 things that are associated with them. When Auggie was called
by his teacher to present, he mentions his name and his family, and also mentions his love for Star
Wars. As he was speaking about Star Wars, Julian starts calling him Darth Sidious, a character
from the series, which is known for its unlikely features. After that, everyone from Julian’s group
of friends started calling Auggie funny names and everyone seem to stare and avoid making
contact with him. After the school day, Isabel picks Auggie from school and immediately puts on
his Astronaut helmet. He wore his helmet even in his home because of being so upset of what
happened in school that day. Auggie went to his room crying and Isabel immediately comforts him
with her husband Nate.

The movie now shifts to Via’s point of view. Via’s life mostly revolved around Auggie
since Auggie was born. Via loves her brother and protects him at all costs. Her parents even called
her as the most understanding daughter in the planet because of how considerate she is of Auggie.
Via talks about how her own family never really knew who she was and the only family that knew
her was her grandmother which passed already passed away. Via also went to her first day of
school and was thinking about how excited she is on seeing her best friend Miranda. She sees her
during lunch break, but suddenly felt like Miranda didn’t want to be her friend anymore. Via
walked out the cafeteria with tears in her eyes, while suddenly stumbling upon a guy named Justin.
Justin asked Via if she was interested in theatre and assuming that Via was an only child like him,
which Via agreed on. Justin pursued Via to join the theatre for them to see each other again, which
Via decides to sign up later on.

Meanwhile, on Auggie’s life at school, Jack Will started to approach Auggie even though
other kids referred to making contact with Auggie as “catching a plague”. Jack and Auggie started
to form friendship with each other which made Auggie’s mom very happy. Auggie and Jack started
to come over Auggie’s place to study and play. Fast forward to Halloween, Isabel told Via to stay
at home for Halloween to spend some time with her more. Meanwhile, Auggie went to school as
“Ghost Face” rather than what he has planned to go as “Boba Fett”. Auggie always loved
Halloween because how he can be confident with a mask on without anyone judging him by his
appearance. But, when Auggie entered his class, he caught Jack, Julian and other kids talking about
him behind his back. Jack said that he would even kill himself if he looked like Auggie while other
kids are making fun of him. Auggie storms out of the room after hearing what Jack said. While
Isabela was bonding with Via at their home, she suddenly receives a call from Mr. Tushman saying
that Auggie threw up at school and was asking Isabela to pick Auggie up. At home, Auggie refuses
to talk to anyone and was asking for his astronaut helmet which was missing at the time. Via went
to Auggie all dressed up for Halloween and encouraged Auggie to go trick or treating with her.
Via asked Auggie to tell her what happened. After some time, Auggie told Via what happened and
he told her that he wanted to quit school but Via convinced him that he shouldn’t. They went out
for trick or treating after that. Few days passed the family started to notice that their dog Daisy
was not as active as before. Isabel and Nate took Daisy to the vet but didn’t have Daisy with them
back home, instead they only took Daisy’s collar with them.

Meanwhile, the movie proceeds to show flashbacks of Jack Will talking to his mom about
touring Auggie around the school. He first refuses the offer because he didn’t want to hang out
with Julian but was suddenly convinced when he knew that he was touring Auggie. His mom asked
Jack to help Auggie with school and to imagine how hard it is for Auggie to adjust to it. After
meeting Auggie, Jack said that Auggie was actually the first kid he wanted to be friends with
because of how kind and fun Auggie actually is. But after Halloween, Jack noticed that Auggie
started ignoring him. During lunch, Jack tried to talk to Auggie but Auggie refused. Summer, their
other classmate, decided to sit with Auggie and asked him why him and Jack aren’t suddenly
talking and Auggie started to tell her why.

Meanwhile on Via, she started to go to drama club and officially auditioned for the
theatrical play of the club. Via got the role of an understudy while Miranda got the role of playing
the lead role as Emily in the play. Via and Justin started hanging out together and also started
dating. When Miranda sees Via and Justin together, she suddenly misses her and called Auggie.
She asked how Auggie was doing at school and asked if he could say to Via that she misses her.
Auggie asked Miranda why she couldn’t tell Via herself but refuses to say it and suddenly cutting
the call.

The Movie now cuts to Miranda’s point of view. Miranda talked about how she was
envious of how the Pullman family treated her as if she was their own and Miranda even gave
Auggie the astronaut helmet for Christmas. Miranda went to summer camp to avoid being at home
because she didn’t want to deal with the issues of her mom and dad being separate and making it
the reason to make their family be emotionally unstable. Miranda told everyone at summer camp
that she had the life of Via, and everyone was so excited to talk to her about her “family”. It made
her popular in camp, making people know that she was the sister of Auggie. Miranda didn’t want
Via to know about it hence why she wasn’t talking to her at school.

On the other hand, Jack finally asked Summer why Auggie was ignoring him since
Halloween. Summer only told Jack “Ghost face” which made Jack realize what he has done. Jack
got paired with Auggie on making a project for the Science fair. Julian refuses and said to the
teacher that him and Jack would like to be paired instead, but Jack refused and said that he wanted
to be paired with Auggie instead. Julian confronted Jack why he did it and started to insult Auggie
which made Jack furious and punched Julian in the face. Jack nearly got expelled but Mr. Tushman
believed in Jack and only suspended him for one day. He talked to Auggie through playing
Minecraft. Jack apologized and asked if Auggie would want to be friends again and Auggie said
ok. Auggie and Jack created a box which projected image from the outside of the box. Their project
got first place leaving Julian as the loser. After that, Julian started to leave notes that would make
fun of Auggie’s condition. Their homeroom teacher saw what Julian was doing and went to Mr.
Tushman’s guidance about the situation. Mr. Tushman called Julian’s parents and argued about
the consequences of Julian’s actions. The parents could not accept of what their child has done and
said that they would leave the school immediately because of the issue. Julian apologizes to Mr.
Tushman before leaving the office.

The Pullman family went to see Via’s play at their school. Meanwhile, Miranda realizes
that there are no one that would cheer for her in the crowd. Miranda then fakes being sick and
asked for their director to let Via take the role of Emily. Miranda rushed to Via and told her that
she will be getting the part. Via took it and played the role well which made the Pullman family
happy and proud for Via.

Finally, Auggie’s class goes on a nature trip for the end of the school year. They had
activities for team building such as outdoor games. After a while, the class is watching the “Wizard
of Oz” as part of the activities. Auggie and Jack went outside to have fun rather than watching the
movie. When they went into the woods, they were harassed by three 7th graders who mock how
Auggie looked. The three starts to physically harass the Auggie and Jack until Amos, their
classmate which was bullying Auggie before, and other boys came to rescue so that Auggie and
Jack could run away. After that, the boys went to the lake to watch the sunset together.

Today is graduation day and the final day of the school year. Mr. Tushman went up stage
to give a speech about an award he was about to give. He presents the Henry Ward Beecher Medal
to be given to a exceptional student whose character was demonstrated not only through
schoolwork but also through relationships with others. The award was given to Auggie and
everyone was pleased and gave him a standing ovation while he walks towards the stage. Auggie
talks about how he felt like he was floating and that everyone deserves a standing ovation once in
their lives.

IV. ANALYSIS

The parts of the film that really stand out for me was the parts when bullying was portrayed
as “normal” by other people, such as Julian’s parents, the part when everyone was rooting for
Auggie especially by the love of his Family, how little things that we couldn’t see in the family
can create such impact on one of us just like what Via experienced, and how people like Auggie
are actually the strongest people that anyone can look up to. I mostly liked the parts how Auggie’s
family never gave up on making Auggie understand about how the real world works. It made me
realize that family could never leave your side even after everyone including your friends left you
one by one. Just like in Understanding the Self, the film showed the importance of family on
shaping a child to grow as a person. Although no family is perfect, we could always look back
onto it and learn things that we could not learn from others. On the other hand, the part of the film
which stand out the most in terms of not liking it was the part when Julian’s parents could not
admit the fact that their son bullied Auggie a couple of times. They didn’t want to admit it because
of shame which is just horrible comparing to what Auggie has experienced. I think this can come
as a lesson that not everything is really just about you, its just how we think of it. This kinds of
cases do truly happen in real life, which makes me very upset because of how inconsiderate some
people really are. But this can also come as a reminder that sometimes we just need to be the one
who’ll understand and to not argue anymore with people who does not want to even admit and
learn from their mistakes. This can relate to the shifting of personalities discussed in Understanding
the Self just like when Julian shifts personalities from being a bully at class to being a good kid in
front of adults.

V. CONCLUSION

The main thing that I learned from the movie is that we are not alone even though
sometimes we think we are, just like what Auggie’s family said to him. We all have our own
difference and sometimes we think of our self as an outcast from others. But in reality, we just
need to find the right people to be with, without hesitating ourselves to be who we truly are. Being
true to yourself is very important because if you can’t be true to yourself, how can you even be
true to others. The film also reminded me that even though sometimes we might fall rock bottom,
like there is no way of coming back to the surface, there are always people who are going to save
us from sinking and would lead us to the way where we can be who we are and stand back on our
own feet. We should cherish these people who are willing to stay with us whatever happens. Lastly,
what I learned from the film the most is to be kind. The movie had a quote which states “When
given the choice between being right or being kind. Choose kind.” which states a very important
message to always choose to be kind. Never hesitate to be kind to other to spread more kindness
and positivity. Choosing kind can also make us realize what is right and what is wrong. Choosing
to understand and imagine ourselves into what it feels like to be in other people’s shoes can create
such a great impact not only on us but most importantly on the people around us. If being kind
could make our world a better place, why not choose it for the better.