Professor Marston and the Wonder Woman (2017)

Three’s a party.

Professor William Marston (Luke Evans) and his wife, Elizabeth (Rebecca Hall), live a relatively happy and carefree life together. He’s a professor at Harvard and she desperately wants to be, but because this is the 1920’s and she’s a woman, for some reason, that’s not allowed to happen. Anyway, the two have a loving and passionate romance that gets a newfound lease of life when they meet Olivia (Bella Heathcote), a young grad-student who applies to become their assistant. Both are struck by her; he wants her, and so does Elizabeth, but it’s sort of different. But in a way, it’s a little too unconventional and controversial to really go about trying to initiate a poly-amorous relationship, especially back in those days. That’s why no one really makes a move for awhile, until they do and all of a sudden, they’re in a loving, sexy, and great romance together. The only issue is that the outside world doesn’t quite accept them all for what they are and it becomes a much larger issue when Professor Marston decides that he wants to make a comic-book.

And what comic-book would that be? Oh yeah, a little thing called Wonder Woman. Perhaps you’ve heard of it?

“Babe? You want up next?”

What’s so interesting about Professor Marston and the Wonder Woman is that it starts off feeling and looking exactly like one of these charming, relatively entertaining, yet safe biopics that we see too often. There’s soft jokes, a little bit of character-development, a great sense of time and place, and a smidgen of conflict in the air. But nothing too much, really; it’s almost as if writer/director Angela Robinson is doing this on-purpose to put us in the this safe-place where we won’t be expected to really think long and hard about much.

But then, in case you couldn’t tell, it all changes. Olivia walks through the door and into these two character’s lives, and suddenly, there’s sex, nudity, whips, chains, gimps, and a whole lot of kink. But no matter what, it actually still stays interesting and never strays away from being heartfelt and humane, even though, at times, the movie can get a little comical. Then again, it’s also the rare movie about BDSM that doesn’t poke jokes at it, or seem to ever have a laugh about that, either; supposed respectful pieces of art like Fifty Shades of Grey likes to think that they respect and appreciate those who like a little kink in their sex-lives, but really, mocks it in certain ways, too.

Here, there’s a certain deal of love and respect for this kind of sexual-healing and it’s nice to see. For once.

It’s also nice to see Robinson actually focus in on these characters, their relationships with one another, and how they all change, over time, when things begin to get hot-and-heavy. Robinson could have easily made this into a movie about how these characters feel about getting whipped and gagged, and how they try to hide it from the rest of the world, but it’s also about so much more. It’s about love, and how Marston himself uses these two lovely women in his life to make sense of the evil in the world, just when it becomes almost too over-bearing. It’s also a movie about life imitating art, and vice versa, where we see what happens to Marston’s real, personal life, and how that affected a lot of the material as seen in the Wonder Woman comics.

“Don’t speak. I know what you’re thinking.” (Why am I always referencing this damn song?)

It’s not all that ground-breaking in terms of the biopic-genre, but hey, it works. Why fix something that ain’t broke, right?

Anyway, Professor Marston also features one of the first performances, in probably ever, where I actually liked and appreciated Luke Evans’ presence. He’s always been charming, hot, and likable, it’s just that he’s never seemed to have been given the one role to really launch him beyond “hot and sexy British dude”. As Professor Marston, he not only gets to use that charm to the fullest-extent, but show a great deal of heart and humanity, which can sometimes put this character in a negative light. Which is fine, because it’s the kind of biopic that isn’t afraid to ask if this guy was a sleaze-ball, or a genuinely smart and intelligent man who did a lot for the world of comics and women, and who also appreciated a little bit more fun in the sack. Either way, he’s an interesting fella and it’s nice to see Evans get the chance to do some real work, for once.

Same goes for both Rebecca Hall and Bella Heathcote who are both pretty great. Hall’s a strong, commanding force whenever she’ up on-screen, whereas Heathcote feels sweet and shy, but also smart in every which way. Together, they represent a little part of Marston’s life, but they aren’t just there to be the women that he occasionally bangs – they have lives, hopes, dreams, and ambitions too that, hopefully, one day, they’ll be to achieve. There’s a slight feminist-angle which doesn’t seem to get fully explored as well as it probably should have, but it’s there, and it’s telling us that all women deserve an equal-chance at a career and love.

So can we at least progress, people?

Consensus: Smart, tender, and character-based, Professor Marston and the Wonder Woman isn’t as safe of a biopic as it looks, with solid performances and an interesting-angle on sex and humanity, overall.

8 / 10

Always takes three to tango. And three to get ball-gagged and whipped, cause hey, someone’s gotta help.

Photos Courtesy of: Indiewire