Professeur Marston et la Wonder Woman

First, I must confess that I am little acquainted with the Wonder Woman comic books. I loved the Wonder Woman series with Lynda Carter and I absolutely loved and am obsessed with the movie starring Gal Gadot. I watched this movie at once because I was curious about the background of the comic book author and because it stars two actors I really admire, Luke Evans and Rebecca Hall. I was pleasantly surprised at how much I enjoyed this movie. The pacing was right, I felt, for the story. I loved how the story was about him but the main focus was always, rightly so, on the two amazing and powerful women who shaped Wonder Woman as much as they influence and shaped the man who created the character from what he saw as the best of both women. The nudity/love scenes in this movie were not graphic and were done, again, my opinion, tastefully and with reverence to the story. I highly recommend this movie to everyone. I loved Wonder Woman before, I now understand why.

To all the people saying that this movie is inaccurate - DUH!! It's a feature film, NOT a documentary!! Do you know what a feature film is? It means it has a script writer - someone who writes the story... who comes up with the lines... based on their own imagination. Of course 90% of the stuff in that movie didn't happen. None of us were there at that time!! They have to make that stuff up. Otherwise, how else are they supposed to make an interesting movie?? If they don't come up with an interesting story you'll complain about how boring it was. If they come up with something interesting that's even slightly fictional the history police goes nuts with their crazy "the movie is inaccurate!!!" comments. Give it a break for once, will ya??

The movie was incredible. It was so tastefully done. The acting is superb. The cinematography is breathtaking. The pacing is spot on and moves the story along so well. Not a single dull moment in this movie. I was captivated from the first second to the last. I could watch movies like this non stop. It's brilliant. Yes, I understand it's not what actually happened. I don't care. For an hour and a half I lived in a beautiful fantasy world and watched an amazing story unfold in the most magnificent way possible. And if that isn't the real reason why people make and watch movies then you need to wake up and get real. This one is a MUST SEE!

After watching the movie my reaction was very positive. I liked the leads, liked the story and the production design was also very good. I only thought that their relationship was a bit too perfect and simple as I think in reality these kind of relationships are much more complex and nuanced which I think is really hard to translate to the screen. And then I started reading about their lives. And then I realized that almost everything I liked in the movie is totally innaccurate or just plain false. And then I started not liking this movie and all the decisions taken. In the movie's defense I think this is a very hard story to tell as very little is known about the girls relationship, but giving it the Hollywood treatment is not the way to go for me. So we end up with a movie that I enjoyed watching but hated reading about it afterwards, like almost all biopics... Maybe I should just stop reading after these kind of movies? I wonder...

With some exception, Hollywood pretty much makes two distinct kinds of biopics. The first kind are the ones that almost seem obligatory – your Gandhi's (1982), your Lincoln's (2012) and the upcoming Darkest Hour (2017); movies about historical giants who did truly incredible things with their lives, incredible things that should be projected (and even embellished) on the silver screen for the world to see. Then there are the ones about the others – your oddballs, your misfits – the characters that history books often ignore but are nevertheless important in the way our world is shaped.

Professor Marston is certainly one of the latter folk. Outside of DC comic devotees and the odd discredited crime scene investigator swearing by the validity of the lie detector, William Moulton Marston is not a name people know. But believe me when I say that after watching this movie, you'll want to read up on him and his equally fascinating partners Elizabeth Marston and Olive Byrne. For not only is he the originator of Wonder Woman, the most famous female comic-book hero ever, he's quietly the most fascinating academics to steer the sexual proclivities of modern society since Albert Kinsey.

He, Elizabeth and Olive I should say. The film starts with the three of them bouncing around the psychology department of Tuft University working on research and fine-tuning William's (Evans) latest invention. Olive (Heathcote), the Marston's graduate assistant becomes enamored with the two of them, binding the three in a love triangle that turns into a healthy polyamorous relationship. It being the puritanical state of Massachusetts in the 1920's however, the three couldn't be insulated by the academic bubble for too long before The Marstons are quickly forced out and move to New York City. From there, they hide their double lives with Olive assuming the role of homemaker and "widow" while William and Elizabeth (Hall) find work where they can as "the couple".

As the narrative slowly ebbs towards the inevitable formation of the first Wonder Woman comic-book, the film occasionally diverts from its primary story and uses a red-baiting comic-book committee as connective tissue to William's complicated past. We've seen this kind of framing before. In fact, apart from the decade's long love story involving three people in a committed and loving relationship, we've seen all of this before…which may be the point. Instead of treating the subject matter as salacious or radically divergent, it treats it as another day in dramatic romance-land. Even when the trio develops an interest in the virtually criminalized BDSM subculture, there's a normalcy there that could potentially bore the one couple in the movie theater looking for their unicorn.

What makes Professor Marston ultimately work is director/writer Angela Robinson decision to make the tension largely external. It's never a question of whether all their goings-on will work but if the world will openly allow it. That concern is personified in Rebecca Hall's inner struggle that has the duel burden of her trying to be a smart, capable, 20th century working girl while also being madly in love with two people. One of whom is a woman.

As the brash, irascible Elizabeth, actress Rebecca Hall is an absolute revelation. She bursts onto the screen, all but announces she's smarter than everyone else in the room and easily proves it with her wit and pragmatism. While Heathcote displays the mirage of idyllic feminine beauty, it is Elizabeth's radical feminism that makes the punchy title worth the watch. Seriously though, if Hall doesn't get an Oscar nom by years' end I may have to boycott (#hall&Oscars).

Less successful is Luke Evans who, while certainly displaying the outward charm of a 1920's lad-about-town just has a knack for putting too fine a point on things. Every time we return to Connie Britton and her committee of comic-book hating cronies, Evans lectures like he's explaining particle physics to a freshman undergrad. Perhaps, given Marston's private life, Robinson may have figured the only way out of being questioned by a HUAC analog would be to be so soporific that they'd just move on to Superman or something.

All in all, Professor Marston and the Wonder Women may not be reverential enough to induce comic-book fans to check it out. The film spans decades ultimately treating the creation of Wonder Woman as an afterthought. Yet for those looking for a decently paced, boiler-plate great biopic it may just be the right ticket for you. Additionally because it smuggles in a few liberalizing tidbits about love and modern feminism (Luke Evans's goofy grin notwithstanding), Professor Marston may even be worth a detour to a theater ballsy enough to play it.

When Wonder Woman made her live action big screen debut on opening weekend, a teaser for a movie based on the life of the creator and his relationship with his wife and her friends made the rounds causing lots of buzz. The thing is, the movie was better than the teaser. It's very accurate based on the time period and the casting is great. Unlike the wonder woman movie, this one is not for kids. It's rated R for sex and nudity and it shows. Luke Evans plays the lead role as Prof. Marston, who created the lie detector test and is on his way to create a game changing female super hero who would become the most famous of them all: Wonder Woman. I'm surprised that this movie didn't get any Oscar love (same for Wonder Woman 2017). Give this one a rental and see for yourself how wonderful this movie is.