The Wonders

A film about a poor, idiosyncratic bee keeping German-Italian family in rural Italy that centres on the eldest daughter and an odd Italian reality TV show that comes to town; sounds promising. Plenty opportunity for humour and possibly satire of urban life or commercialism (as represented by the TV show) but that is not what we get with The Wonders. Certainly the relationship between 12-year-old Gelsomina and her irascible father Wolfgang is well represented and the three younger sisters attempt to steal the show at times.

But where The Wonders fails is that it has too many plot lines and characters and doesn't do them all justice. For instance Angelica the mother is pretty much a bystander. On the other hand Cocò would not be missed and the mystery of her role within the family is a distraction. The reality TV show plot line doesn't really deliver on any level and is just confusing. The plot line about Martin, the foster child, adds tension to the relationship between Gelsomina and her father, but it is begging to go further.

On the whole this is a film with promise that ends up being a muddle.

Ian's rating 2.5/5 Anne's rating 1/5