wonderstruck…

Ok, I admit it, I went along to the Watershed at lunchtime primary to have a glass of wine, some chunky chips and to do some surreptitious sketching in the bar… but, given that it was a rotten wet day, I also booked in to see Todd Haynes’ “Wonderstruck”.
The film is an adaptation of Brian Selznick’s young adult novel of the same title. According to the Watershed’s blurb, it’s “both a children’s film for adults and a refreshingly grown-up film for children” and, if that wasn’t enough to whet your appetite, “Wonderstruck is a movie that will leave you just that”…
Given such cheesy descriptions, I really should have known better!
As far as I was concerned, the film was neither a “children’s film for adults” or a “grown-up film for children”.
The main action takes place in New York 50 years apart (1927, in black+white, and 1977, in glorious colour). The two principal characters, Ben and Rose (both 12 year-olds, I think)(played by Oakes Fegley and  Millicent Simmonds respectively) are both deaf (actress Simmonds is actually deaf in ‘real life’) and both “desperately unhappy”. They both dream of a better life and head off for the Big Apple in search of a) Ben’s absent father, following his mother’s tragic death and b) Rose’s silent movie star heroine.
They both end up being drawn to the American Museum of Natural History as the two stories become interwoven. I think I’ll leave it at that… (frankly, the plots are pretty ridiculous and unconvincing – but the music is good!).
Look, it’s a perfectly ‘pleasant’ film (for a horrible, rainy day) but, frankly, I would have been much happier if I’d gone to watch “Isle of Dogs” again!
PS: On the positive side, I did do three very rapid scribbled sketches before watching the film (and I don’t think I was ‘spotted’ by any of the ‘victims’… and without either spilling my wine or covering them in mayonnaise!)