With the “Don’t Worry Darling” drama (almost, nearly, please make it stop) behind us, Florence Pugh has another hotly anticipated psychological drama on her hands with Netflix’s “The Wonder.”
The film, from Academy Award-winning Chilean director Sebastián Lelio, explores the phenomenon of fasting girls, a Victorian-era occurrence where young girls claimed to survive long periods of time without eating due to divine intervention.
Based on “Room” author Emma Donoghue’s novel of the same name, “The Wonder” follows English nurse Lib Wright (Pugh), who’s called to a rural, fervently religious Irish community in 1862, 13 years after the end of the Great Famine.
There, she’s tasked with watching over Anna O’Donnell (Kíla Lord Cassidy), an 11-year-old girl who says she hasn’t eaten for four months, surviving only off of “manna from heaven.”
“As Anna’s health rapidly deteriorates, Lib is determined to unearth the truth, challenging the faith of a community that would prefer to stay believing,” the synopsis reads.
The trailer released on Tuesday promises another meaty and potentially Oscar-worthy role for Pugh, who fights to save the child’s life in the face of authoritarian leaders as issues of religious faith and science collide with disturbing results.
“I’m here to find out the truth,” Pugh’s character says in the clip, as tensions between the nurse and the local villagers reach a boiling point. “Will you help me?”
Unlike a certain other project, Pugh seemingly has no qualms about promoting this film, posting the trailer on her Instagram this week with a glowing caption.
“And here we have it,” she wrote. “Unbelievably excited to share this trailer. Thank you to all those patiently waiting, here’s our baby. Our wonderful little Wonder of a movie.”
Earlier this year, the Oscar nominee opened up about the experience of filming the movie.
“We’ve been traipsing around the Irish hills for the last week and it’s truly been a magnificent start to a beautiful and exciting film,” she wrote on Instagram in August. “What a story to get our teeth stuck into, what a crew to be working alongside and a fantastic director Sebastian Lelio to be leading us! This will be fun.”
Tom Burke, Niamh Algar, Elaine Cassidy, Toby Jones, Ciarán Hinds, Dermot Crowley, Brían F. O’Byrne and David Wilmot also star in the film, which hits theaters Nov. 2 before arriving on Netflix on Nov. 16.
Watch the trailer for “The Wonder” below.
