Todd Haynes
116 mins
USA, 2017, English
Principal Cast: Oakes Fegley, Julianne Moore, Michelle Williams
Director Todd Haynes (Carol) has created a movie that is a meticulously curated pastiche that spans generations, genres and styles. Based on the young-adult book by Brian Selznick (The Invention of Hugo Cabret), who adapted the screenplay, the two narratives belong to Rose (Millicent Simmonds) and Ben (Oakes Fegley), 12-year-old children living in 1927 and 1977, respectively. Rose is deaf and living unhappily in New Jersey with her strict father (James Urbaniak), and spends most of her time going to the cinema and collecting photos of her favorite movie star (Julianne Moore).
Ben lives in Minnesota, has recently lost his mother (Michelle Williams), and is consumed with curiosity about his father, whom he never knew. After a freak accident leaves Ben deaf, he and Rose both embark on parallel journeys to New York City, in search of their idol/missing parent (though it seems there’s ultimately not much of a difference). Though they don’t exactly find what they were looking for, their fates intersect around a certain “cabinet of curiosities,” and they find other sympathetic souls.
Wonderstruck | Monday Night Film Series | Tilley Hall, Room 102, UNB Campus | February 26, 2018 – 7:30pm | See full schedule
