“This is the beginning,” says the voice of Niamh Algar, “of a film called The Wonder.” As Matthew Herbert’s haunting seascape of a score swoops, clangs and swirls, we see a film set – scaffolded buildings within a vast studio, much like the opening of Pedro Almodóvar’s recent short film The Human Voice. Ace cinematographer Ari Wegner’s camera slowly ventures into one of these sets to rest upon the face of Florence Pugh, as Algar’s hypnotic narration continues, telling us: “The people you are about to meet, the characters, believe in their story with complete devotion.”
It’s 1862 and we’re on a boat. A decade after the great famine, English nurse Elizabeth “Lib” Wright is travelling to a village in the Irish midlands to attend local girl Anna O’Donnell (Kíla Lord Cassidy), an apparently healthy 11-year-old who hasn’t eaten for four months. Anna’s parents (whose son has already “gone over”) think it’s a miracle and news of this wonder is starting to spread, with visitors arriving daily to see the girl who lives on “manna from heaven”. A committee of notables, including the imposing Father Thaddeus (Ciarán Hinds) and the pseudo-science-minded Dr McBrearty (Toby Jones), has been established to verify or debunk tales of divine intervention.
