Professor Marston and the Wonder Women Movie Dies
I was looking forward to seeing Professor Marston and the Wonder Women, the movie that opened Friday about the guy who created Wonder Woman and his unusual family life. Then a few things happened.
The movie did not do at all well. According to Tom Flinn, it “crashed and burned, averaging just $600 per screen in 1,229 theaters.” That only adds up to about $737,000. Perhaps it should have had a more indie-movie-style rollout instead of going to over a thousand screens? The NY Times thought “Critical applause may help the film… to find a video-on-demand audience.”
Plus, Marston’s granddaughter Christie started speaking out against the movie. Apparently the film portrays the adult relationships as polyamorous, which is a matter of some debate. She tweeted, calling it “fiction”
#LassoTheTruth pic.twitter.com/w29UcFqUfC
— Christie Marston (@ChristieMarston) October 14, 2017
and gave an interview that goes into more detail about how the film’s writer/director, Angela Robinson, didn’t contact the family.
So it seems that if you want to see this film, you should do it soon.
6:09 pm
For another point of view, here’s one from a critic I respect:
http://buffalonews.com/2017/10/12/crazy-tale-wonder-woman-created-justify-bigamy-kink/
Ignore the terrible headline.
It comes across as lukewarm, but overall it is positive. Here’s a representative comment:
“So as you watch this movie about this extraordinary menage from Lepore’s book, you’ll find it smart, witty, sexy, and kinky but also preachy and self-righteous before it finally settles into being sentimental and moving at the end.”
6:25 pm
I’m late to the party, I know, but I do hope you ended up taking the time to watch the movie, Johanna. I’m not in the position to say whether the protagonists’ relationship “in real life” was a triad, two separate male-female pairings, or something else.
I’ll just say that- no disrespect intended towards Christie Marston- the only people who knew the truth about the family’s dynamic are long dead. While we should certainly view the events portrayed in the movie with a huge grain of salt, I’d consider the grandchild to be an observer with an agenda too, not an impartial arbiter of her grandparents decades after their passing.
In any event, I thought the movie was well worth a couple hours of my time, whether or not the comic book burning happened before or after Marston’s death, or whether the two female characters were “sisters,” “lovers,” or “sister-lovers.” If you didn’t see it in the theater, I hope you will when it eventually makes it to some streaming service
Thanks for your multiple articles on the movie. I’m glad I came here and read them.
6:51 pm
Unfortunately, I didn’t have a chance to get out to it, and it’s no longer playing, but it’s definitely a movie I want to catch on video. Glad to hear you enjoyed it, and you make a valid point about everyone having different motivations.