Director Todd Haynes on the set
Director Todd Haynes with Ed Lachman shooting on the streets of New York
WONDERSTRUCK
A
USA (117 mi) 2017 ‘Scope d:
Todd Haynes
Official
Site
We are all in the
gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars.
Premiering in competition on the second day at Cannes, the
film received little fanfare in a less than stunning field, yet once again it
appears the critics missed the boat, as it’s literally an astonishing effort,
one of the more highly accomplished and best directed films seen all year,
arguably the best edited, featuring a truly remarkable production design from
Mark Friedberg, coming on the heels of one of Haynes’ most acclaimed films, 2015 Top Ten
List #6 Carol, we are witnessing a director at the peak of his creative
powers. Shot by the irrepressible Ed Lachman, among the best in the
business, with writer and illustrator Brian Selznick adapting his own
children’s novel, the film bears some similarity to Martin Scorsese’s Hugo in 3D
(2011), which was also an adaptation of a Selznick novel, though Scorsese
directed his film so that 12-year olds could see the film, while this feels as
if children are not the target audience, if only due to the gravity of the
material, though there’s nothing in it that’s inappropriate for children.
The fact that it’s a children’s story may have turned many adults off, thinking
it’s not heavyweight material, but they’d be misguided, as this is one of the
more dramatically compelling films seen all year, where it’s like an homage to
curiosity, drawing implications from stored memories, especially preserving
things over time, finding hidden meanings in the messages they convey, which
inflames and literally enlarges a child’s imagination. What’s perhaps
most surprising is the artistic sweep of the film, which can be breathtaking,
where the technical precision is impeccable, combining two stories from
different time periods into one, with abandoned lives forced to search for
what’s missing, where the power of discovery can feel enthralling, particularly
the vibrant energy captured on the streets of New York City, which have rarely
been seen with this kind of expressivity. The other surprise is how
cleverly Haynes uses deafness as a key element, allowing him to slip back into
the black and white silent era, while seamlessly moving back into the modern
era where moving pictures tell the story, using the conventions of the silent era,
image and gesture, to convey meaning, with silence an interesting motif for
missing parents in the intersecting lives of two kids across a broad extension
of time, much of it visually intoxicating, with choice music by Carter Burwell
along with a several recognizable period pieces. This may be the only
film that advances the storyline using written notes to a deaf person that are
read aloud, much like a storybook might be read to a child, creating a strange
intersection between cinema and the literary world, actually honoring and
celebrating the written word.
Ben (Oakes Fegley) is the 12-year old son of a single
mother, Michelle Williams, in an isolated rural setting of Gunflint Lake in
northern Minnesota in 1977, offering many clues in just the opening few
minutes, including a nightmare involving wolves, a curious quotation attributed
to no one in particular (though it’s Oscar Wilde), but also a late-night moment
when he can’t sleep, wandering into his mother’s room, where she’s sitting
alone having a cigarette, listening to a David Bowie record, David Bowie – Space Oddity
[OFFICIAL VIDEO] - YouTube (5:05), with Ben wondering about his absent
father, wishing she’d tell him something about him, while she calmly tells him
now is not the time, though this sounds like a common refrain, as if he’s heard
it many times before. This moment is significant on many levels, as it
occurs again later but under different circumstances, with a few changed details,
as now Ben’s mother is gone, feeling particularly abandoned and alone from her
death, searching skyward for unanswered questions, when suddenly a freakish
accident from a bolt of lightning causes instant, yet permanent, hearing
loss. The address of a used book store written on a bookmark found in an
old book from his mother’s bedroom, an exhibition catalogue called Cabinets of Wonder, leads Ben on a
series of clues, along with a secret stash of money, sending him on his way to
New York City on a bus in search of his missing father. In a parallel
black and white silent film story set in 1927 in Hoboken, New Jersey, Rose
(Millicent Simmonds, a first-time deaf actress) is a 12-year old deaf girl born
to a wealthy but punitive father, James Urbaniak from Hal Hartley’s Henry Fool
(1997), who makes paper models of skyscrapers in her room, but decides to run away
to New York City carrying a newspaper clipping about a famous actress, Lillian
Mayhew (Julianne Moore). Her arrival to the hustle and bustle of the
crowded streets of New York is an experience similar to that of so many
immigrants who don’t speak the language, who are instantly lost, pushed aside,
and rudely ignored by everyone walking by, mad at anyone who slows them
down. Despite the difficulties, including an afternoon visit to a movie
melodrama, Daughter of the Storm, a
Lillian Mayhew tearjerker with the theater advertising its transition to
talking pictures, she finds her way to the theater for an afternoon rehearsal
where the famous actress, looking exactly as she did onscreen in the movie
matinee, angrily locks her up in her dressing room, forcing her to escape out a
street-level window.
Both of these stories are beautifully interwoven, displaying
the director’s master craftsmanship, especially the arrivals at the ferry
landing and Port Authority Bus Terminal, which are spectacular recreations,
with Haynes shooting what amounts to a love letter to his beloved city of New
York, as it has rarely been shown with this degree of affection for the teeming
humanity that lives there, interjecting color and energy to a story that is
exquisitely told, unraveling like a storybook, showing astonishing range,
continually delivering a series of unexpected events, creating what amounts to
a treasure chest of memories and lingering hopes, all thrown into a mix of what
amounts to a city-wide treasure hunt, with both characters searching for what’s
missing in their lives, following what they hope are promising clues that feel
more like stabs in the dark. What’s interesting is that both children are
clearly moved by hidden secrets, a newspaper headline about an actress
appearing in a play in New York inspires Rose in much the same way a dusty old
book seizes Ben’s imagination, with both acting on their instincts. Both
are drawn to similar locales, where the film brilliantly explores the American
Natural History Museum and the Queens Museum through a child’s impressionable
eyes, where each exhibit is like seeing it for the first time, literally coming
to life in their minds, where movies project a kind of magical allure. At
one entryway Rose walks inside the Cabinets
of Wonder, which at the time was on full display, yet she brings a strange
inquisitiveness inside, plagued by lingering doubts, continually targeted by
over-anxious security guards that vehemently lecture her (but can’t be heard or
understood), asking herself a perpetual question, “Where do I belong?”
Ben, on the other hand, is unleashed into the city streets to the electronic
music of Deodato, Deodato
- Also Sprach Zarathustra HQ audio - YouTube (9:00), suggesting the
experience is an awakening, with Haynes revealing layers underneath the layers,
striking out at his first destination, as the bookstore is boarded up, instead
finding a friend, Jamie (Jaden Michael) who takes him under his wing, as his
father works at the museum, so he knows all the hidden passageways, including a
secret room no one else knows about. This unorthodox friendship inside a
museum is reminiscent of the interior observatory scenes with James Dean and
Sal Mineo in REBEL WITHOUT A CAUSE (1955), as Jamie, like Mineo, is desperate
for a friend, any friend, literally clinging to Ben who’s on another mission,
bolting to a new address provided, as the initial bookstore visited moved
around the corner. What awaits inside is like unlocking the key to his
own curious mystery, as a whole new world awaits. Becoming more
emotionally driven by the end, reaching a remarkable crescendo, Julianne Moore
makes an impressive appearance late in the film, where one of the astonishing
secrets is a full-scale model of the City of New York, initially commissioned
for the 1964 New York World’s Fair, which mirrors the paper models of
skyscrapers that Rose kept in her bedroom. This film has more small
delights than one could ever possibly expect, where the film is a cherished
expression of the resilience of the human spirit and the undiscovered worlds we
can encounter, concluding with a children’s chorus recorded in the mid 70’s
which eerily bookends the film, The Langley Schools Music
Project - Space Oddity (Official) - YouTube (5:27).
