Professor Marston & the Wonder Women

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...

Yesterday I saw the movie Proff. Marston and Wonder Women. I am from India and I never read any comics of Wonder Women, but I saw recently released film Wonder Women directed by Patty Jenkins, character played by Gal Gadot then I became aware of Wonder Women.

After few months, I saw this Proff. Marston and Wonder Women, thinking that a new film of Gal Gadot. But to may dismay, this film came out something else, a biography of Proff. Marston who created the comics of Wonder Women.

But after watching this film, I am really thankful to the director Angela Robinson for bringing out the story of Proff. Marston with such a deep understanding of his personal life and roles played by his wife Elizabeth and partner Olive in the creation of Wonder Women.

The film made a profound impact on me, I tried to find out why is it so, then I realized that the director made the use of DISC Theory that Proff. Marston used in all his life and applied it to his comics character of Wonder Women. Really hats off to the director for this.

I am really amazed by the meticulously crafted screenplay that not only captured the deep psyche of all the characters but also of the audience who do not want to miss a single scene or dialogue. Such a profound work! The script is so alive and written with emotion that we can feel the real characters playing the role.

The actors of the film are really praise worthy, whether it is Luke Evans, Rebecca Hall or Bella and others. They actually lived the script on the screen.

Nonetheless, the film's editor Jefferey Werner is the real hero of this film who brought the whole narrative to its life. He is an impeccable craftsman who has deep understanding of the film structure and montage theory. It requires some special skills to understand these complex characters and bringing their story to life without boring the audience.

I liked the camera work of cinematographer Bryce Fortner, there are no camera gimmicks but just simple and effective framing, no unnecessary emotive angles. The director and cinematographer gave all the freedom to the actors to portray deepest emotion that brings out a great dynamics to the screen. I really admire the scene where Bella wears the Amazonian dress; no special lighting but simple chiaroscuro that brings out all the mood and emotion.

The music by Tom Howe and background score is so effective that it keeps us rooted to our emotional journey. And one of the plus point of this film is its Make up, Costume and Art Direction. These areas are very well managed by the respective departments.

I am really moved by the story and life of Proff. Martson the creator of Wonder Woman. Once again my thanks to Angela Robinson for creating such a beautiful film. I wonder why this film is not nominated for Oscers?

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.

Grateful to have caught an early screening of this movie in NYC, in which the cast made a brief appearance at the movie theater. The first thing I want to say is that this is a movie I will watch more than once.

Professor Marston and the Wonder Women is a film about ideas. It explores polyamory ("the philosophy or state of being in love or romantically involved with more than one person at the same time") and touches on explorations of dominance/submission and role-play, along the lines of BDSM.

Having read Jill Lepore's excellent book, The Secret History of Wonder Woman, I knew a great deal about this story before going into the theater. As Lepore writes, "Wonder Woman's debt is to the fictional feminist utopia and the struggle for women's rights. Her origins lie in William Moulton Marston's past, and in the lives of the women he loved; they created Wonder Woman, too." It's this dynamic that sets the stage for this story, and the preview trailer for this film made it look erotic too. But those expecting to see a film along the lines of Henry & June may be disappointed.

I enjoyed this movie, but wished the romantic elements were explored more fully, particularly between the two women. The editing seemed at times overly efficient, too much in a hurry, far more concerned with propelling the narrative forward than in creating a relaxed, intimate atmosphere where the characters could indulge in the situation and be in the moment. I wish there were more "real time" scenes of foreplay, actually. Not sex, foreplay - as in flirting. Because I couldn't see the bond these people shared, and this was a movie about how these people connected.

My favorite character, by far, was Olive Byrne as played by Bella Heathcote, who is vulnerable and beautiful in the film. A real Gwendoline, to use fetish parlance. Least favorite would be Marston's wife as played by Rebecca Hall, who's an accomplished actress but seemed too uptight - and, worse, too contemporary - in this role. It always amazes me that costume and set design for period pieces like this are thoroughly researched and accurately reproduced, while almost no research goes into reproducing language use and speech patterns of the day (1925 - 1947). Did people actually use the f-word as much as Rebecca Hall uses it in this film? I think not. It made her character more grating than she needed to be. This is a fault of the script, and the f-word was used as a crutch far too often.

Marston was played adequately by the rugged-looking Luke Evans, who bears no resemblance to the overweight, dreamy-eyed real-life William Moulton Marston, but this was a concession to female audience members I suppose.

In real life, it's unknown how Marston developed an interest in BDSM. In the film, it's through Marston's encounter with the mythical pioneer of fetish history, Charles Guyette (the "G-string King"), a real historical figure. What I know of Guyette I learned through reading Charles Guyette: Godfather of American Fetish Art by Richard Perez Seves. As suavely played by JJ Field, he serves as mentor to Marston. Again, this is a bit of shorthand. Guyette is not mentioned in Lepore's history, but the audience is quickly introduced to this fetish underworld, which serves as a strong influence in the creation of Wonder Woman. No mention of Guyette being French in the Seves's book; in fact, he was born and raised in Massachusetts, according to Seves, but the people making this film may not have known this at the time as this brief book is more recent.

Overall, I'll wrap up this review by saying that despite these flaws, this is a film worth viewing. Maybe my own high expectations for it were impossible to meet. I enjoyed many scenes, with my favorite relying on the lie detector machine used in the first half of the movie; I truly loved those scenes. Again, I loved Bella Heathcote as Olive Byrne in this. So, in spite of all my nitpicking, I still give this movie a strong 7 out of 10. The ideas explored in this film make it worth watching. Maybe there's a director's cut of this film out there with additional scenes between the actors. One can only hope. But I would still see this movie again, as is, and certainly plan to.

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.