Professor Marston and the Wonder Women

Last night I saw Professor Marston and the Wonder Women and I thought it was fabulous!  It tells the fascinating true story of how the Wonder Woman comic strip came into existence.  William Moulton Marston (Luke Evans) is a Harvard professor of psychology whose area of expertise is dominance and submission in human relationships.  His wife Elizabeth (Rebecca Hall) has also earned a PhD in psychology, although Harvard won't grant her the degree because she is a woman, and she works closely with her husband testing his theories.  Olive Byrne (Bella Heathcote) is a student who signs up to participate in their experiments and falls in love with both of the Marstons.  They begin a relationship and the two very different women inspire William to create the character of Wonder Woman.  What I loved most about this film is the clever way that every part of Wonder Woman's iconography comes into being.  Watching the film becomes a little bit like a scavenger hunt looking for clues, some of which are fairly obvious, such as the Marstons' creation of the lie detector test as the inspiration for the lasso of truth, but others are more subtle and are satisfying to notice (the timing of this film is particularly good coming so close after the release of the blockbuster Wonder Woman).  While the film does focus of the creation of the iconic character, to me it is more about the relationship between these three people and I think director Angela Robinson does a beautiful job in developing it tastefully and intelligently.  Yes, there are some really steamy scenes involving S&M role playing between the three characters but it is absolutely clear that they are all consenting adults and that they all love each other deeply.  All three of the lead actors give amazing and highly nuanced performances but I was especially impressed with Hall who is brilliant in this role.  It is a beautiful film on the screen with lovely cinematography, costumes, and production design.  This story is interesting but it is also very timely in its message about the right to love who you love.  I highly recommend it!