His mom, Isabel (Roberts), put her career on hold to homeschool him from the beginning in the family’s Brooklyn brownstone. But the real surprise here is Izabela Vidovic as Tremblay’s older sister, who’s been generous enough to allow her brother to be the center of the family’s attention at the expense of her own emotional need. Julia Roberts and Owen Wilson find just the right notes as his supportive parents. Tremblay, who showed instincts beyond his years in the devastating 2015 drama “ Room,” provides both a sweetness and an intelligence to his 10-year-old character that make him accessible even when he’s wearing an astronaut helmet to hide his face. Uniformly strong performances help ground the story. (“Wonder” occasionally dabbles in magical realism, but in ways that are more amusing than distracting.) He has an aptitude for science, a sly sense of humor, and an active imagination that helps him navigate uncomfortable situations. The script, co-written by Chbosky, Steve Conrad and Jack Thorne, is wise to establish quickly that Auggie is a regular kid in every other way. The makeup work here is solid and believable, revealing Auggie’s sad eyes behind downturned facial lines and nubs of skin for ears. He was born with a genetic abnormality that has required him to undergo surgeries and medical treatments since his earliest days.ĭirector Stephen Chbosky has managed to take a story that could have been painfully mawkish and made it genuinely moving in (mostly) understated ways. Palacio novel of the same name, “Wonder” follows a year in the life of August Pullman ( Jacob Tremblay), Auggie, for short.

Wonder palacio novel