If you’ve ever watched a Florence Pugh movie, you know she doesn’t do simple at all.
Instead, almost all her movie roles from her haunting performance in Midsommar to her captivating the audience in Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer proves that her entire schtick is raw, layered, complicated. In true Pugh fashion, The Wonder on Netflix is all of that and more.
So, let’s break down this gem of a movie from its weird beginning to that perfect ending that everyone can’t seem to stop talking about.
The Wonderful Storyline of The Wonder
Set in Ireland in 1862, which is basically when the Great Famine had a huge hold on the country, Florence Pugh plays English nurse Lib Wright. She has been sent to a small, suspicious village to observe a young girl, Anna O’Donnell (played by the incredible Kíla Lord Cassidy), who claims she hasn’t eaten in four months.
The townsfolk call Anna a miracle, the church sees her as a sign from God, but Lib, being the practical English nurse that she was, thought all of that was just pure balderdash (see what I did there?)
To Lib, Anna was a medical mystery—or maybe a tragedy waiting to happen. Her job is to watch the girl for two weeks and report her findings. Of course, things get complicated fast. The deeper Lib digs, the less sense anything makes and the harder it becomes to separate truth from belief.
Florence Pugh Is the Whole Show
As with nearly every other movie in her discography, I think it’s safe to say that the entirety of The Wonder Netflix sits on Florence Pugh’s shoulders, and she carries it really well. As Lib, she’s sharp, skeptical, and heartbreakingly human. You can see every ounce of her inner conflict: her frustration, her guilt, her exhaustion, just in the way she breathes.
Lib’s nights are a haze of laudanum (a mix of alcohol and opium), which she drinks to dull old pain. She pricks her finger for blood before bed, almost like she’s checking if she’s still alive. It’s weirdly poetic—and very Pugh.
The cast of The Wonder Netflix adds to the movie’s eerie magic. Young Kíla Lord Cassidy is haunting as Anna. She could be calm one minute and terrifyingly devoted the next. Her real-life mom, Elaine Cassidy, plays her mother in the film, and that chemistry shows. Tom Burke (The Souvenir) shows up as William, a journalist who becomes Lib’s unlikely ally. And then there’s Niamh Algar, who bookends the story as both character and narrator—and she absolutely nails it.
Faith and the Lies We Tell Ourselves
About halfway through the movie, Lib figures out what’s really going on. It turns out that Anna’s mother has been secretly feeding her daughter by mouth—literally transferring chewed food through a kiss. It’s disturbing (and honestly disgusting, if you ask me) but it makes sense. That’s the only way Anna was able to survive that long without eating. And when Lib forbids the mother from visiting, Anna’s health spirals very fast.
Even with proof, nobody wants to believe the miracle isn’t real. The priest, the villagers, even Anna’s family; they all cling to the story because it’s more comforting than the truth. That’s when you realize what The Wonder is really about. It’s about how far people will go to protect the stories that give their lives meaning. Faith can keep people alive, but it can also destroy them.
The Perfect Ending Everyone Deserved And Got!
Okay, here’s The Wonder Netflix explained in plain English. Lib decides that if stories can kill, they can also save. So she makes up a new one. She tells Anna she can die—but be reborn as someone new, free from the pain and guilt she’s been carrying.
Lib fakes Anna’s death, burns down the family’s cottage to cover her tracks, and, with the help of the Journalist, sneaks the girl away to Australia under a new identity: Nan. The last shot shows them at a dinner table, finally eating together, alive and free.
Why The Wonder Netflix Is Worth Watching
Now, The Wonder isn’t a movie for when you’re half-asleep or multitasking. It’s this sort of deeply atmospheric movie that requires your full attention. The cinematography makes Ireland look both breathtaking and haunted. The sound design; creaking floors, whispered prayers and faint wind, keeps you tense even when nothing particularly “big” is happening.
But when it does hit, it hits hard. The incredible direction by Director Sebastián Lelio (who gave us A Fantastic Woman, by the way) combined with Pugh’s emotional gravity, turns what could have been a historical curiosity into something painfully human.
So, is The Wonder Netflix movie worth your two hours? Absolutely! Florence Pugh gives another powerhouse performance, and Sebastián Lelio crafts something that feels like both a dream and a warning. You’ll walk away thinking about faith, storytelling, and the fine line between devotion and delusion.