Professor Marston and the Wonder Women, written and directed by Angela Robinson - Nine out of 10

Professor Marston and the Wonder Women, written and directed by Angela Robinson

Nine out of 10

Professor Marston and the Wonder Women is an exceptional, almost perfect film that could have been overwhelming with another actor in the leading role of William Marston.

Luke Evans is not inefficient, but he seems to lack the stature, the stamina, charm and self-assurance – although this might be just the point.

His hesitancy, lack of strength when compared with his Wonder Partners may be intentional.

The real main characters are the Wonder Women, even if the professor should have gained more weight, as stated, given that he is the one who has launched the DISC theory:

Dominance, Influence, Submission and Conscientiousness.

Aside from that, at what seems to be the idea of his wife, he has created the lie detector test and he is the man behind the…

Wonder Woman cartoons.

He is a Harvard psychologist who talks at the beginning of the film to his students, explaining that they have just separated from the philosophy department and he has some research in process.

Together with his wife, Elizabeth Marston aka the scintillating Rebecca Hall, he would try to get insight into the human mind and asks volunteers to sign up and participate in their work.

Elizabeth is frustrated because in the first part of the last century men were even more sexist that they can be today and in spite of her superb qualifications, the motherfuckers – in her words – refused her any decent position.

Olive Byrne aka the mesmerizing Bella Heathcote is a resplendent, sensuous student that wants to join the studies and is antagonized when Elizabeth Marston warns her off fucking her husband.

After this initial breakdown of relations, the professor talks to his spouse and asks why she had said that she does not experience “sexual jealousy” and is told that this is the female mind for you…

Start your study there…

When they continue with an appeased Olive, Elizabeth realizes that the young woman is lying and she sees the symptoms of perspiration, the heart rate seems to be different when she is not telling the truth.

Husband and wife realize they are on to some extraordinary invention – at the spark of genius of Elizabeth – and then they start using a machine that would draw lines that show even someone is lying.

In order to be friends with Olive, they invite the man that loves and wants to marry her and he sees that she seeks the approval of Elizabeth Marston and is puzzled as to what they want from his fiancée.

This student is appalled at what he sees, thinking the couple perverse – as most others would see them indeed – and bent on corrupting the morals of his supposedly naïve and innocent would be wife.

Nonetheless, when the experiments with the lie detector continue, the professor asks Olive if she wants to have sex with him, she says no, but the machine shows the truth and the same with other questions.

Even if the student protests that she does not love Elizabeth and does not want to have sex with her, the evidence, with large bounces in the graphic, points to the contrary and she runs away from the truth.

Mrs. Marston catches up with her, they start kissing passionately, they call the man to join them too, and this scene is one of the most erotic we can see, although there is the same feeling that Evans is not perfect for the part.

The apparently shy, hesitant, reluctant to confront her emotions young woman is already enticing her new lovers into the wardrobe of the amateur theater where they put on some costumes.

Later on, when William Marston discovers the “King of the T String” and the outfits made for the BDSM fans, Elizabeth rejects the concept as outrageous, but Olive loves it and induces her lover to join in.

Alas, one neighbor walks into their home with an offering of a cake, stumbles upon the trio as they tie Olive dressed in the uniform of a nurse, and they are in the process of making love.

They have children by now, these are attacked and abused by other children, because of what is now common knowledge, and the fight ensues wherein the next-door neighbor punches the professor.