I have never been into super hero comics. Truth be told, when I was a kid they weren’t really available. Tiger, Roy of the Rovers, and Scoop were much more to my taste! As a consequence, I haven’t been interested in any of the Marvel or DC films of recent years but this story of the personal life of the man who created the character of Wonder Woman piqued my interest.
Played by Luke Evans, William Marston was a psychologist married to fellow academic Elizabeth (Rebecca Hall) who assists him in his classes and research. In the 1920s, a new student Olive Byrne (Bella Heathcote) joins William’s class and she starts to fall in love with both the husband and wife. Once the three of them start a poly-amorous relationship, the Marstons lose their jobs and, inspired by their experiences, William starts to create the female super hero.
The fact that these people lived that sort of lifestyle, that also flirted with BDSM, is certainly eye-opening but the problem is that the characters are not really interesting enough to sustain a feature film. Also, I felt that the impact their lifestyle must have had on people around them, especially the gaggle of kids that William fathered with both women was not really explored.
Hall is great as the most complex and conflicted of the three, but Evans and Heathcote are a little bland, and Oliver Platt is wasted in a small role as William’s boss at the comic book company.
Rating: 5 out of 10