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Saturday, October 20, 2018

Professor Marston and the Wonder Women (2018)

This is the real life retelling of the life of the man who created Wonder Woman.  The movie has all the trappings of a tasteful period piece: the true-story origins, the tweedy collegiate setting, the to-die-for costumes. But beneath all that, it aims to shake you up, make you think and  even squirm a bit.
At the film’s start in the mid-1940s, William Marston (played by Luke Evans)—who created Wonder Woman under the pseudonym Charles Moulton—is being interrogated about the character’s scandalous, sadomasochistic imagery by the head of the Child Study Association of America, the uptight Josette Frank.  Flashbacks to 1928, when he was a Harvard psychology professor working alongside his brilliant wife, Elizabeth (Rebecca Hall), shed light on the source of this aesthetic.
Where Marston was all charm and charisma and good looks, Elizabeth was sharp-witted and no-nonsense. The energy between the two crackles long before they begin sharing their lab—and, eventually, their bed—with Olive Byrne (Heathcote), a Radcliffe student who initially enters their lives as a research assistant. The couple can’t deny their joint attraction for the bright, beautiful blonde—and she, in turn, falls for them both, which she’s forced to admit in an exquisitely tense scene involving an early version of a lie detector.  The Marstons are crediting with coming up with the device, which is an interesting dual legacy for them.  It is an intense movie, with lots to recommend it, but it does not shy away from the edges of sexuality, so be forewarned.

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