Professor Marston and the Wonder Women

Wonder Woman made her impact on the big screen last summer. We now have a biopic based on the man who created the superheroine … and the women in his life. There was a fleeting trailer for the movie before Wonder Woman last summer and now, Professor Marston and the Wonder Women is here.

In 1928, Dr. William Moulton Marston (Luke Evans) is a Harvard Professor married to Elizabeth (Rebecca Hall). The Marstons teach behavioral studies by day and develop the polygraph by night. A student, Olive Byrne (Bella Heathcoate), applies as their lab assistant. Marston is smitten with Olive and while Elizabeth isn't fond of the hypotenuse, sparks fly between them too. Their unusual lives cost the Marstons their jobs, Olive her engagement and them their normal lives. They'll have to move away from Harvard.

Marston hopes to make his theories more accessible to the public. A trip to a BDSM costume shop inadvertently gives him the inspiration for the Amazonian superheroine. A quick meeting with Max Gaines (Oliver Platt), publisher of All-American Publications later, and Wonder Woman is ready to go. Unfortunately, the Marston's neighbors have caught on to their kinks and ostrasized them. The Moral Guardians have also caught on to Wonder Woman's admitted BDSM imagery and are ready to grill him. What's a scientist to do?

Director/Writer Angela Robinson's screenplay frames Marston's life with his meeting with one such moral guardian (Connie Britton). His backstory leads back to the framestory, leading up to his hospitilization for the skin cancer that killed him in 1947. We see how he laid the ground work for the DISC theory and how Elizabeth refined the polygraph. We see a lot of R-Rated material. What don't we see? How and why Marston decided to come up with a comic book superheroine. He sees Olive dressed in a dominatrix outfit and – bam! - Wonder Woman! We open the film with a comic book burning, but until she appears, we don't see a chronological mention of a comic book.

The three leads make the film great. Marston is a bold intellectual, Elizabeth his reserved equal and Olive finding her place between them (i.e., ID, superego and ego). Their first uses of the polygraph are tense as their lies are exposed by science. Their difficulties with each other are as tough as any “normal” family. They struggle to survive the scrutiny of their neighbors and moral guardians but ultimately pull through.

There are many technical wonders on the crew. The production and costume design are a good representation of the era. Bryce Fortner's cinematography really shines when Olive appears in her outfit, which is presented in a dreamy “Eureka” moment leading to Wonder Woman. Jeffrey M. Werner's editing makes the back-and-forth chronology comprehensible and the dramatic moments tense. Tom Howe's score is good, even if the period standards are more memorable.

Professor Marston and the Wonder Women isn't exactly an accurate representation of the early days of the greatest comic book heroine. It's still a good character study of three people in an atypical relationship. It's not perfect and thorough but it held my interest for its 108 minutes. It ends with an epilogue which ends the film on a fine note.

Speaking of comic books, it makes me wonder when someone will finally adapt The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay, a novel about two fictional comic creators. There's another great story waiting there!