The scene is
set in a science lab in the American Beecher Prep, which is a private school, as
the newcomer Auggie Pullman (Jacob Tremblay) is being taken on a tour by three
established students. All four young characters are wearing casual clothes and
are not in school uniform which gives them all their own individual identity. This
event happens just before Auggie attends full-time for the start of the fifth
grade as previously he has been home-schooled by his mother. The 10-year-old lad
suffers from Treacher Collins syndrome which is a genetic disorder that affects
his eyes, ears, cheekbones and his chin. It is interesting to see, and to hear,
his peers’ reaction to his appearance and their understanding of his condition,
or rather lack of it, when they first meet him on this visit.
Initially,
an obnoxious Julien (Bryce Gheisar) immediately perceives Auggie as being
unable and incapable of basic things let alone any academic skills he may have
due to his physical appearance and therefore makes the assumption that he is
mentally impaired as well. He has judged him on his observations before
learning anything about him and some of his comments are cruel and uncalled
for. He refers to science as being difficult and implies that it is way too
advanced for someone who hasn’t been in a real school before and then he tries
to soften this direct approach by adding that he meant ‘no offence’.
The camera focuses on Auggie’s reaction to this naive boy’s
remarks. His head is tilted forward which lowers his chin making him lower his
gaze and this makes the audience feel empathy for this young boy who is having
to deal with this similar aged lad’s ignorance. Auggie isn’t used to
interacting with children as he has been protected from the unkindness in the
‘outside world’ by his parents. Jack (Noah Jupe) tries to stand up for Auggie
and gets knocked down by Julien’s cutting remarks about them possibly both
taking science and failing together. Julien starts the tour of the science lab
by stating the different pieces of scientific equipment such as incubators,
Bunsen burners and gross science posters then he picks up an eraser and makes a
point of belittling Auggie making out that he wouldn’t know what one was.
Julien remarks that he doesn’t know what Auggie knows as ‘he’ doesn’t speak
thus passing the onus back onto the new lad.
Auggie has
positioned himself on the periphery of the group and his body language is
displaying someone who is uncomfortable in its surroundings. He has his body
part-turned away from them allowing him to face the shelves so as not to give
eye-contact; his head is bowed down and his shoulders are slumped forward to
make himself seem smaller and less conspicuous. After Auggie asks Jack a
question about what his name is, he has a question posed to him from Julien,
which is unkind and straight to the point regarding his face. Both Jack and
Charlotte (Elle McKinnon) are shocked by his insensitive query yet Julien
continues to wonder whether Auggie was involved in a fire as well as being born
‘that way’. There are raised voices until the camera focuses on Auggie in a close-up
head shot; it travels backwards to follow his movement forwards towards Julien
whilst he’s improving Julien’s speech in a low, soft tone of voice; he tells
him that he has pronounced ‘supposebly’ incorrectly and that it should be said
as ‘supposedly’ in a non-mocking way. He even suggests, in an innocent and
genuine manner showing no malice, that his Mum could possibly home school him
too. Auggie demonstrates that he is intelligent and well educated as he
indicates that the word is spelt with a ‘d’ and he mentions how many times that
Julien has said the word inaccurately. Jack feels pride for Auggie indirectly
putting Julien in his place; Charlotte is quietly impressed and Julien is left
feeling humbled by this remark as he looks a little bewildered by making a
swallowing action and puts on a brief false smile.
Binary
opposites help to move the narrative of this scene along as in this School Tour
scene we have an able-bodied young lad demonstrating his ignorance when he is
addressing a similar aged disabled lad. His lack of understanding and
inexperience ‘shoots him in the foot’ as his tactless approach results in him
feeling the foolish one when it is revealed that the newcomer is in fact a very
bright and clever young man.
Jacob Tremblay
who plays the role of Auggie went through the transformation of becoming the
disfigured young main male protagonist for the film Wonder. They reduced the three-hour
make-up application down to one and a half hours so as this 9-year-old boy could
cope with the length of filming that this role dictated. As the film progresses
the audience feel compassion and understanding towards this character and to
other young disabled people that this role is symbolising. It highlights not
only the major problems but the everyday complications and difficulties that
less-abled people have to face on a daily basis that able-bodied people take
for granted.
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