The backstory to the man behind "Wonder Woman", William Moulton Marston, is an intriguing story - how his experiences as a psychology professor, as a member of a romantic triad and, eventually, with BDSM played a part in the creation of the most enduring female superhero of all time. Writer-Director Angela Robinson puts this unconventional material into the somewhat more conventional structure of a standard period biopic (where the research occasionally feels a little imposed so that characters are reciting elements of their backstory on one another as a way of squeezing facts that aren't otherwise relevant to the story can get in there) - but there's still a power to this story of smart people giving way to their emotions and facing the oppression that results from their breaches of convention.
The performance of Rebecca Hall as Elizabeth Marston, wife of William, is the one that really sticks out - Hall has a great way of playing both the cynical veneer and the more complex emotions below the surface that really shines here. Luke Evans as William and Bella Heathcoate as Olive, the student who becomes a lover to both of them, are a little more low-key, but they do hit the key emotional points. I kinda wish this had been a little more sexy, a little more radical in telling its story, but still, this is a reasonably successful biopic that keeps itself entertaining.
No comments:
Post a Comment