WONDERSTRUCK

Todd Haynes-directed movies are hit and miss for me. I loved CAROL and came to appreciate I'M NOT THERE. As for his latest WONDERSTRUCK, it's a mixed bag. Brian Selznick's script, adapted from his novel, is extremely contrived and full of holes, but the filming of it by Haynes' and his crew is original and at times dazzling in its authenticity (as in the most realistic depictions of New York in the 1970s I've seen in a long time in any film or TV show).

The main reason to see it, for me, is the lead young actress Millicent Simmonds who plays a deaf girl in 1920s New York (some very creative uses of vintage footage and other devices make her black and white experiences seem of the time), and also happens to be deaf. There are not enough deaf characters in movies and on TV and never has been (as can be said about a lot of minorities mostly missing from films and TV), but here's one who should have more characters written for her unique talents.

Julianne Moore plays a few real, as well as a few stage and movie, characters entirely (as far as I can remember) without ever using her voice, quite an achievement too. Other actors, like the two male child actors Oakes Fegley and Jaden Michael in the color parts of the movie set in the 1970s, do pretty good jobs as well. All in all a daring attempt to make a unique film out of a pretty contrived and manipulative script.