Director: Stephen Chbosky
Year Released: 2017
Rating: 1.0
Poor tiny Auggie (Jacob Tremblay), born with Treacher Collins syndrome that left him facially disfigured, goes to school for the first time (after years of being home-schooled by his mother, played by Julia Roberts) and has to deal with taunts from some of his classmates. While I appreciate Chbosky, working off the novel by R.J. Palacio, trying to show different perspectives - Auggie's sister Via (Izabela Vidovic) and his 'good friend' Jack Will (Noah Jupe) get side-stories - it is relentless in its efforts to mock Auggie's appearance at every turn just to garner audience sympathy (it's cheap, it's easy and it's lazy writing). I've worked, in the past, with children with disabilities and deformities and I've generally found the other kids can be surprisingly considerate once they get to know and understand them ... which happens in this case (at the very end, Our Hero is given an award for being the inspiring individual he is). It's made with good intentions (and the makeup on Jacob is fantastic), but too syrupy.
