Wonder Woman’s fresh take on the superhero-origins movie was a welcome addition to a stagnant genre. Now here’s the story of how the character was created—a superhero-origins-origins movie—disrupting traditional biopic formulas with affection, humor and an irresistible “love is love” philosophy. Written and directed by Angela Robinson, the fascinating true story stars Luke Evans as William Moulton Marston, a Radcliffe (Harvard for ladies) psychology professor in the late 1920s whose outspoken wife, Elizabeth (Rebecca Hall), is an equally competent (though not equally degreed, thanks to sexism) scientist. The Marstons’ open relationship makes them amenable when beautiful research assistant Olive (Bella Heathcote) comes along and the three all sort of fall in love with each other. Polyamory raises eyebrows in 2017; imagine how it went over during the Depression. The three grapple with their unorthodox feelings, experiment with bondage fetishes and invent the lie detector! Now Wonder Woman’s fondness for ropes and truth-telling makes sense. Robinson gives us biopic tropes—the framing story has Marston defending his comic book against a panel of prudes in 1945—but focuses on righteous, feminist characters and their sexy, often funny, slyly progressive attitudes.
By
Eric D. Snider