A Review of "Wonderstruck"

I went to see this movie on Wednesday to escape the smell of paint fumes (our basement had just been painted top to bottom) and the gray, dreary, weather was a perfect excuse to escape reality for a couple hours. It was just me and one other lady,* so we pretty much had a private showing. I only wish I was sociable enough to approach her and sit next to her, but movie watching can be such a solo activity.

“Wonderstruck” is another Brian Selznick (“Hugo”) masterpiece. The movie was about young Ben, circa 1978 and young Rose circa early 20^th century (just before movies added sound) and how their worlds eventually collide in New York City.

The official summary says this: “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.”

I had read that this movie hired a lot of deaf actors, which was part of the appeal, and a few of the non-deaf actors also learned some ASL as well, some of which I could follow. The  movie had the same sense of whimsy and childhood innocence as “The Invention of Hugo Cabret,” (though, to be honest, I think I much prefer “Hugo Cabret”) and I could definitely recommend it, though I thought it was frustrating trying to read lips in all the scenes involving young Rose getting yelled at by thoughtless hearing adults. I guess I can better sympathize with how truly deaf people must feel a lot of the time (I am hard of hearing, but not that severely).

* We chatted afterwards and she said she had once taken an ASL class as well (at OSU I think) and was now a retired office worker. Although she didn’t much care for the ending, she said she’s a big fan of Brian Selznick and had the record containing the kids choir recording of “Ground Control to Major Tom” which was played while the credits rolled.