Details the unconventional life of Dr. William Marston, the Harvard psychologist and inventor who helped invent the modern lie detector test and created Wonder Woman in 1941. Marston was in a polyamorous relationship with his wife Elizabeth, a psychologist and inventor in her own right, and Olive Byrne, a former student who became an academic. This relationship was key to the creation of Wonder Woman, as Elizabeth and Olive's feminist ideals were ingrained in the character from her creation. Marston died of skin cancer in 1947, but Elizabeth and Olive remained a couple and raised their and Marston's children together. The film is said to focus on how Marston dealt with the controversy surrounding Wonder Woman's creation.
Without giving too much away, this trio's relationship goes on for decades, but it is the act of watching it evolve and usurp puritanical attitudes to triumph in so many ways that makes this fascinating biopic work as well as it does.
It's quite a story and a cinematic task writer-director Angela Robinson is not always up to. But I wasn't bored, and in this anemic year that's saying a mouthful.
Wonder Woman's genesis in bondage play and a willfully naughty attempt to subvert the mainstream deserves a more courageous film than this one, gauzy and overscored.
The drama also shows that Wonder Woman has come a long way, baby. Gone is her whole weakness to submission, being rendered harmless every time a man tied her up.
Professor Marston and the Wonder Women presents a fascinating backstory for a beloved superhuman heroine. And, it's underlying themes of freedom and feminism are timely.
