Oscar Profile: WONDER

Erik Anderson May 24, 2017

From L to R: Owen Wilson as “Nate,” Jacob Tremblay as “Auggie,” Izabela Vidovic as “Via” and Julia Roberts as “Isabel” in WONDER. Photo by Dale Robinette

Wonder
Lionsgate – 11/17
Dir: Stephen Chbosky
Cast: Jacob Tremblay, Julia Roberts, Owen Wilson, Daveed Diggs, Mandy Patinkin, Sonia Braga, Izabela Vidovic

What It’s About: Based on the New York Times bestseller, WONDER tells the incredibly inspiring and heartwarming story of August Pullman. Born with facial differences that, up until now, have prevented him from going to a mainstream school, Auggie becomes the most unlikely of heroes when he enters the local fifth grade. As his family, his new classmates, and the larger community all struggle to discover their compassion and acceptance, Auggie’s extraordinary journey will unite them all and prove you can’t blend in when you were born to stand out. – official Lionsgate synopsis

Pros: An Oscar winner (Roberts) and one of the biggest names in child actors at the moment (Tremblay) combined with a strong studio and a killer release date make for a very hopeful and likely awards push. Emotional material could pull at the Academy’s heartstrings but also has a good dose of humor. It could be Lionsgate main awards push this year. Director Chbosky has proven himself able to handle young adult material well, having directed and written The Perks of Being a Wallflower, based on his own novel.

Cons: The trailer feels less awards-driven than box office driven and emotional gets into sappy territory quickly. Tremblay has had a hard time turning his Room success into something more. Older Academy voters may recall the 1985 film Mask, starring Eric Stoltz and Cher, which was also about a kid with facial deformities and his mom, and feel Wonder doesn’t have as much gravitas. Conversely to the ‘pro’ above, Chbosky’s The Perks of Being a Wallflower did gain some awards traction throughout the season (including WGA and USC Scripter noms and a handful of critics’ wins) but ended up falling short come Oscar time.

The Bottom Line: There is definitely potential for Wonder hit both box office and awards but it’s not likely to do so with critics so it will depend on strong support within the industry to pull off the latter. Tremblay and Roberts may also again face category confusion (he with Room, her with August: Osage County) that could provide an obstacle to awards traction for either or both of them. At the moment, I’m not seeing Wonder as a major Oscar player but as previously thought strong contenders fall (as they do every year) other films rise and Wonder could do that.

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Erik Anderson

Erik Anderson is the founder/owner and Editor-in-Chief of AwardsWatch and has always loved all things Oscar, having watched the Academy Awards since he was in single digits; making lists, rankings and predictions throughout the show. This led him down the path to obsessing about awards. Much later, he found himself in film school and the film forums of GoldDerby, and then migrated over to the former Oscarwatch (now AwardsDaily), before breaking off to create AwardsWatch in 2013.

He is a Rotten Tomatoes-approved critic, accredited by the Cannes Film Festival, Telluride Film Festival, Toronto International Film Festival and more, is a member of the International Cinephile Society (ICS), The Society of LGBTQ Entertainment Critics (GALECA), Hollywood Critics Association (HCA) and the International Press Academy. Among his many achieved goals with AwardsWatch, he has given a platform to underrepresented writers and critics and supplied them with access to film festivals and the industry and calls the Bay Area his home where he lives with his husband and son.