WONDER - A Film About an Ordinary but Extraordinary Boy Starring Jacob Tremblay and Julia Roberts

WONDER is a film adapted from the Y/A novel by Raquel Jaranillo that revolves around an exceptionally gifted and emotionally vulnerable young boy, Auggie (Jacob Tremblay, ROOM) born with the genetic disorder Crouzon syndrome.  Auggie tells us at the beginning of the film of the numerous surgeries to improve his breathing, hearing & plastic surgeries to mitigate his facial deformities.  Auggie does things ordinary kids do but he's not ordinary because ordinary kids don't get stared at.  Auggie loves Halloween, Star Wars and wearing a space Helmut that conceals his face.  He's about to start middle-school after years of homeschooling by his mother (Julia Roberts) and he's petrified.  Auggie is blessed with a loving family (father, Owen Wilson) and an older sister, Via (an excellent Izabela Vidovic).  Auggie's gets stared at, bullied and made an outcast. Segments are titled to insure we know from whose vantage we're looking from:  Via, a loving sister who feels (justifiably) that her family orbits around her brother leaving her adrift.  Auggie's mom, whose angst for her son is palpable and does her best (as does dad) to help their son navigate in the world.  And, Miranda, Via's friend who abandons her at the start of school for reasons of low self-esteem.  Auggie is fortunate to have a sensitive principal (Mandy Patankin) and homeroom teacher (Daveed Diggs, Hamilton).  (Unfortunately, Diggs does not have more time on screen.)  Digs provide a moral compass for the class and daily precepts that teach about the kind person we are.  Choosing kindness is the heavy handed precept.  I say choose watching the film with an audience of young adults.  I laughed as the audience jeered at the kissing scenes.  I was aghast at the cheering for the fighting scenes.  (Only the Dad said fighting was bad, after asking Auggie if he won.)  I cried while the crowd was dry eyed during the school's production of OUR TOWN.  Moreover, I was most taken by the cogent condemnation of the parents "{white parents}" whose son is disciplined by the principal for bullying.  The mother had only threats & recriminations for the principal & the school; absolving her son's behaviors.  "White parents!"  Whoa, this was a startling eye opening perspective.  Who else but white, affluent parents would condone their child's aberrant actions and blame others?  The cast & the films' relationships were racially diverse.  (You could argue the parents weren't Caucasian.)  But, what is the precept for elitist privileged entitlement?  Remorse & redemption were perceived by the youngsters.  Still, the astute observation made aloud by students in the audience is duly noted & fairly allowed.