Professor Marston and the Wonder Women

Directed by Angela Robinson.

2017. Rated R, 108 minutes.

Cast:

Luke Evans

Rebecca Hall

Bella Heathcote

Oliver Platt

JJ Feild

Connie Britton

Chris Conroy

Monica Giordano

I wasn't ready for this.

At all.

I heard this was a movie about the guy who created Wonder Woman. I heard his wife was his muse. The character became a worldwide icon. I figured there were up and downs along the way, but this is the story of a comic book hero. I was ready to be whisked away to a simpler time.

Nope.

That's not what happened.

It was a different time, to be sure. We first meet our hero, William Marston (Evans) during a hearing in 1945 about the Wonder Woman comic book. If you know the industry's history, you know this was a time when it was under attack for "questionable" morals. In this case, Marston is charged with using Wonder Woman to promote lesbianism and S&M, big no-nos for the time. From there, we flashback another seventeen years, to 1928, when Marston is a professor at Radcliffe College and working with his wife Elizabeth (Hall). They teach and do research together on what would eventually become their invention of the polygraph, aka, the lie detector test. When they decide to hire an assistant, they choose one of his students, Olive (Heathcote), whom he is infatuated with. Since he and Elizabeth speak frankly and often about sex, Elizabeth is fully aware of her husband's feelings. One thing leads to another and not only are the trio having threesomes, but engage in a full-blown polyamorous relationship, moving in and having kids together. Soon, they begin experimenting with bondage and this leads to the creation of Wonder Woman. 

Huh?

Yup.

Normally, this is where I start telling you what I think of various aspects of the film. This time I need some time to process all that's going on here. I grew up watching Lynda Carter as Wonder Woman, a titillating portrayal, if ever there was one. However, this takes things to a whole new level. I've long ago accepted that most female superheroes started life as merely sexed up versions of male characters. I've also accepted that we're slowly (but surely?) correcting this problem by empowering them in ways that have nothing to do with their bodies. See the character's big screen debut in 2017 for proof. It's refreshing to know that Wonder Woman was actually ahead of the curve even seventy years go. She was way ahead, as it turns out. Though herself sexed up, she wasn't the type just meant for ogling. She had a clear gender-based purpose. On the other hand, that purpose seems to be a bit much given the target audience. In the film, Marston never shies away from the fact he uses lots of overtly sexual imagery in her stories. He even says that the character is intended to teach boys that it's okay to be submissive to a woman. By extension, he surmises this will also help boys better respect women. The message is fine, but the method is questionable. Instead of just showing there is nothing inherently wrong with his lifestyle, he is bludgeoning readers over the head with it and trying to win converts. That's tough to take when you consider (what they thought was) the target audience is aged 10 to 13 years old. I'm against censorship in art, and a fan of superheroes, so ultimately, I'm glad he wasn't shut down. Still, there is a such thing as being appropriate. Professor Marston clearly sets out to cross that line as often as possible. It makes the character more salacious than just a jiggling pair of breasts ever could.

But what about the actual movie?

It's pretty darn good.

Professor Marston and the Wonder Women tells its story in a way that lets us know how far we've come as a society, but how far we still have to go. Since sexual tolerance is something we're still working on, the parallels between the overwhelmingly puritanical Depression-era America and that of the still young twenty-first century are easy to spot. It places Marston and his partners in the position of being involved in a forbidden love. We get to see the hardships they go through because of it. And life isn't just a bit uncomfortable for them, they are being persecuted on every side. Because of this, we allow ourselves to root for them.

Character-wise, the film takes an interesting tact. Though it focuses on Professor Marston, he is not the character we most identify with. In fact, he might be the least. He comes across as arrogant, pretentious, and more than a bit slimy, since he just seems to be on a never-ending quest to get his rocks off under the guise of achieving some greater good. Elizabeth even asks him at one point, "How long are you going to use science to justify the whims of your cock?" It's a completely fair question. Therefore, he is hard to like. Luke Evans embodies these traits. Through him, we understand Marston to be a dominant who enjoys playing submissive. Elizabeth is also a dominant personality. Her ego nearly matches her husband's, she's nearly as libido-driven, and there's a palpable coldness to her. Rebecca Hall lets us know there's a heart beneath the haughty exterior, but she makes us and everyone else work to get to it. She keeps us all at arms' length until she can no longer stand to.

Having two people who are hard to side with works because of Bella Heathcote's portrayal of Olive. With the aid of the screenplay, she gives us a woman who comes across as demur and unassuming, but is quietly adventurous. On the surface, it seems she is merely a follower talked into everything that happens to her. As the film progresses, it's evident she yearns to be nudged before taking any uncertain steps. This makes her a perfect fit for William and Elizabeth, a willing and trusting submissive. This makes the times when she asserts herself moments we cheer because we see her as the underdog standing up to her bullies. We also see her as the caterpillar perpetually emerging from her cocoon as a butterfly. Above all, we feel something from her we don't feel from her partners - warmth. Without question, she is the soul of the film and the one with whom we empathize.

Of course, this is still a film about the creation of Wonder Woman. And it's effective in showing how the opposing dispositions of Elizabeth and Olive are combined with each other and their sexual proclivities to bring Wonder Woman to life. How certain character traits of the heroine came about is fascinating. So, too, are Marston's battles with the government and even his own publisher, Max Gaines (Platt), to bring his vision to the masses fully intact. Watching him verbally spar with the powers that be is a joy. His stubbornness and arrogance pays off for him, and us, in this arena, leading to some wonderfully humorous exchanges, giving the film some much-needed levity.

There are two facets of the film that don't work quite as well as they should. The treatment of their children by others becomes a big point of contention midway through the film. However, since none of the kids becomes a character of consequence, we never really get a sense how all of this is affecting them, or not. They're just set decorations occasionally referred to to make some sort of point and forgotten about until that point needs to be restated. Devoting a few minutes to them as an actual part of the story may have added more depth and raised the stakes for them beyond the lip service paid to their plight. The other part that doesn't work quite as well is the ending. It feels rushed and devoid of the emotion needed to make us feel like love flowed in all directions between these three people. Instead, it becomes a love story between just two of them and I don't think that was the intention of director Angela Robinson. I get that it was probably a difficult proposition after spending so much time making Marston out to be selfish which is, in large part, how they all wound up together. Still, there needs to something more than what we're given. Slowing down the film to explore what happens to him at the end would likely have provided that.

My apprehensiveness over Wonder Woman's stated purpose aside, this is a film I enjoyed a good deal. After all, my main problem is just reconciling own thoughts on the character with the idea that a comic book writer was trying to indoctrinate me into a particular way of thinking that was quite the opposite of the way it was presented to me as a youngster. Again, it's not a bad purpose, just one I wasn't ready for. That's a me problem. Regardless, the movie manages to make sense of it all while telling an entertaining, excellently performed, and poignant story. I couldn't be any truer if a golden lasso were wrapped around me.

Click below for more Wonderful reviews 

Wonder Woman (1974)

The New Original Wonder Woman (1975)

Wonder Woman (2009 - Animated)

Wonder Woman (2011, 1967 TV Pilots)

Wonder Woman (2017)