By Naomi Anderson, Entertainment Editor
The most heartwarming and loving movie of 2017 hit theatres on Nov. 17 and that movie was Wonder, adapted from The New York Times best seller by R. J. Palacio. The book and movie tells the story of August “Auggie” Pullman (Jacob Tremblay) and his first interaction with middle school. It doesn’t sound too bad, right? Most would think so, but for little Auggie it’s his worst nightmare. Auggie suffers from Treacher Collins Syndrome, a facial deformation, and becomes the target for being called Freddy Krueger, Darth Sidious, and other foul names because of the way he looks, but his family helps him realize that “you can’t blend in when you were born to stand out.”
Before middle school, Auggie was homeschooled by his mom, Isabel (Julia Roberts). He has a sister named Via (Izabela Vidovic) and a cool dad named Nate (Owen Wilson). Auggie’s family loves him with everything in their hearts and when they see him leaving for his first day of school, they pray no one will be mean to him.
Auggie struggles with finding friends and is bullied because of how he looks; his classmates start a rumour that if they touched Auggie, they got ‘The Plague’ because Auggie looks sick because of his facial deformation. Eventually Auggie befriends Jack Will (Noah Jupe) and the two become very close.
This movie is heartwarming with its beautiful message! I was teary eyed during the whole film! In middle school, my teacher read the book to us, so seeing the story come to life was exciting for me! The casting is amazing and everyone appears how I imagined them when we read the book. I can feel Auggie’s emotions as he goes through struggling at school and tries to make friendships. His family cares so much about him and they could not be more proud of him. The soundtrack matches the scenes perfectly and the Star Wars references make the movie a little better than it already was.
The ending hits hardest because it shows that we’re all the same and no one deserves to be thought of as unusual because they look different. This movie now holds a special place in my heart, and everyone should go see it. It will make you think twice about the things you say or judging people by how they look.
“WHEN GIVEN THE CHOICE BETWEEN BEING RIGHT OR BEING KIND, CHOOSE KIND.”
— DR. WAYNE W. DYER