Professor Marston and the Wonder Women (2017)

Simply Perfect

Sadly Over-hyped

Blistering performances.

By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

I like this kind of stuff... Very often, I find the inspiration behind a work to be more interesting than the work, itself.I'm not completely sold on the notion that discussion of hemlines, or the domestic status quo, can be waved away as being 'unimportant', though...Their relationship with each other may have been unusual - and perhaps even trailblazing, for its time - but that shouldn't cloud the fact that, because the creator is male, Wonder Woman still remains at least in part an outlet for MALE desires... Feminists championing a character doesn't automatically make the character herself feminist... and if one professes to believe in 'truth', then it is important that this idea is discussed and debated perhaps more robustly than it is examined by the film!

I watched this movie at home on DVD from our public library. While it is "based" on a true story there is a large part of it fabricated by the writer/director as her interpretation of what might have happened among the family.It starts in the 1920s, Luke Evans is Professor of Psychology William Marston. Rebecca Hall portrays his wife, Elizabeth Marston. He has a student, a pretty young girl of 22, that starts to work for them, she is Bella Heathcote as Olive Byrne.Much of the story has Professor Marston inventing the lie detector which isn't really accurate, he invented the blood pressure cuff. But this story portrays them using a lie detector as a vehicle to get to the truth of their complicated relationships.They are portrayed as a family of three, not just a man with two female lovers, but also two females with female lovers. Together they had several children. It is presented that Wonder Woman was inspired by his two women and that he wanted to give young girls a role model that would help them realize they had options and powers also.Regardless of the truth presented in the movie it is factual that after Marston died relatively young the two women remained together until Olive died. So there was something there. Altogether a very well-made movie and regardless of the actual relationships Marston really did invent Wonder Woman and the comic books featuring her.

In 1928 Radcliffe Colleges, William Moulton Marston (Luke Evans) is a professor with his wife Elizabeth (Rebecca Hall). They are taken with beautiful student Olive Byrne (Bella Heathcote) and recruit her as a test subject. She's the daughter and niece of prominent liberated women despite being left to be raised by nuns. They develop a complicated family group as well as create the lie detector and comic book icon Wonder Woman. In 1945, Marston is interrogated by Josette Frank of the Child Study Association of America as Wonder Woman comics are burned publicly.This is a fantastical tale of the true origins of Wonder Woman. It's a more adult fare comparable to the TV show Masters of Sex. The movie would work better to explain the sexual climates of the 20s to the 40s. A little more exposition would set up the their outsider relationship. It also clashes with the family-friendly modern comic book franchises. It is more adventurous than even the needs of a puritan sexuality of movie comics. A better title would be Sexual Perversions of Wonder Woman but that would drive away the kiddie crowd that races to the modern comic book movies. There is a conflict between the real subjects and the reality of the PG-13 franchises. Surprisingly, there is real heart in these characters and this movie delivers real conflicts.

The start of the movie made me think "three star" as we were presented w/the improper clichéd scene of male teacher looking at attractive female student with an obviously longer attention span (in real life it would be noticeable to all ss) and female student smiling back, also with more than academic interest. OK, obviously meant to capture viewer interest for what was to follow. But, as the tale unfolds it turned out to be informative on many issues, particularly for that period and applicable still today, about female gender role in society; what is sexuality; what is love; general societal acceptable norms of behavior for relationships; not to mention our ground breaking female superhero. The only thing I thought was missing, probably in special features, was better objective documentation to support the telling of the story in that way.