Professor Marston was an interesting man. A professor of psychology, a noted feminist who lived with his wife and another woman together. He was responsible for an important element of the lie detector test and he created Wonder Woman all before dying at a relatively young age of 53.
This film depicts how the creation of Wonder Woman was linked between his polyamorous relationship from the late 1920s between his Manx born wife Elizabeth (Rebecca Hall) and their alluring research student Olive Byrne (Bella Heathcote) who was the daughter and niece of radical feminists but was actually raised by nuns.
Marston (Luke Evans) himself had ideas that would be deemed to be deviant for the times. He had an interest in bondage, domination, submissiveness as well as the living arrangements with the two women, elements that bled through the Wonder Woman comics.
The story is framed through an interrogation of Marston by Josette Frank of the Child Study Association of America who is appalled as to what is being shown in the comics and how this might relate to Marton's own lifestyle.
The framing device of the inquiry was clumsy. It did rather mirror the McCarthyism that will soon become all too real a few years later.
Heathcote brings the right blend to her character. Inquisitive, vulnerable, sexy and willing to open her mind to new experiences. Hall came across as too brittle and angry. I could never see Oliver falling for Elizabeth. Evans brings some smoldering Welsh temperament to his Marston, passions burning underneath just waiting to ignite.
The film was rather uneven, apart from the comic advisory board inquiry, the part where they are caught in their relationship by a neighbour and its aftermath was horribly done. Marston's own family have been critical of the events depicted in this film.
Director Angela Robinson is not as daring as she makes out to be. The film is rather vanilla than kinky, the narrative tends to get awkward too often.
This film depicts how the creation of Wonder Woman was linked between his polyamorous relationship from the late 1920s between his Manx born wife Elizabeth (Rebecca Hall) and their alluring research student Olive Byrne (Bella Heathcote) who was the daughter and niece of radical feminists but was actually raised by nuns.
Marston (Luke Evans) himself had ideas that would be deemed to be deviant for the times. He had an interest in bondage, domination, submissiveness as well as the living arrangements with the two women, elements that bled through the Wonder Woman comics.
The story is framed through an interrogation of Marston by Josette Frank of the Child Study Association of America who is appalled as to what is being shown in the comics and how this might relate to Marton's own lifestyle.
The framing device of the inquiry was clumsy. It did rather mirror the McCarthyism that will soon become all too real a few years later.
Heathcote brings the right blend to her character. Inquisitive, vulnerable, sexy and willing to open her mind to new experiences. Hall came across as too brittle and angry. I could never see Oliver falling for Elizabeth. Evans brings some smoldering Welsh temperament to his Marston, passions burning underneath just waiting to ignite.
The film was rather uneven, apart from the comic advisory board inquiry, the part where they are caught in their relationship by a neighbour and its aftermath was horribly done. Marston's own family have been critical of the events depicted in this film.
Director Angela Robinson is not as daring as she makes out to be. The film is rather vanilla than kinky, the narrative tends to get awkward too often.