Florence Pugh constantly reminds us that she’s a force to be reckoned with. After her outstanding turn as Alice in Don’t Worry Darling (truly why you should see the film), Pugh has shown us yet again just how brilliant she is. She’s constantly bringing to life women who are being challenged by the men around them, and it seems like her latest film The Wonder from Netflix is falling into that category.
The Wonder is described as follows: “1862, 13 years after the Great Famine. An English Nightingale Nurse Lib Wright (Florence Pugh) is called to the Irish Midlands by a devout community to conduct a 15-day examination over one of their own. Anna O’Donnell (Kíla Lord Cassidy) is an 11-year-old girl who claims not to have eaten for four months, surviving miraculously on ‘manna from heaven.’ As Anna’s health rapidly deteriorates, Lib is determined to unearth the truth, challenging the faith of a community that would prefer to stay believing.”
In the trailer, we see Pugh’s Lib Wright head to the countryside of Ireland to examine this young girl for two weeks, and what we find is a community unwilling to accept the help of a nurse and the “wonder” that is Anna O’Donnell.
Alongside Pugh is Tom Burke, Kíla Lord Cassidy, Ciarán Hinds, Toby Jones, and more, and it looks like another fantastic film from director Sebastián Lelio.
The strength of Florence Pugh’s characters
Whether it is Amy March fighting for her place among her sisters or Dani struggling to fight back against the stigma her boyfriend has placed on her mental health, all of Pugh’s characters tend to have a fight in them. I’ve talked about Pugh’s characters previously and how she understands their appeal, and it feels like The Wonder just continues that trend.
It can be so easy to dismiss Pugh’s draw towards these characters in a negative light, but she really has mastered the art of making each feel new and different while highlighting the same issue: Society would rather see women and not listen to them. Each of her characters has to fight for anyone to listen to them, and yet, Pugh masters making each feel fresh and original.
What’s so exciting about The Wonder is that she’s back in a period piece (which is where Pugh got her start in films like Lady Macbeth and Outlaw King), and we can’t wait to see what she has in store for us. The Wonder hits Netflix in the United States on November 16, and we have to wait that long for another Pugh knockout performance?!
(featured image: Aidan Monaghan/Netflix © 2022)
