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Professor Marston and the Wonder Women

6/10

Stars: Luke Evans, Rebecca Hall, Bella Heathcote, Oliver Platt, J J Feild, Connie Britton

Director: Angela Robinson

Anybody expecting a film about Wonder Woman had better think again, despite one of the central protagonists being the inventor of the character. No, the film is basically about sex.

Free-thinking Dr Marston (Evans) and his blue-stocking wife Elizabeth (Hall) - the latter bitter at being denied a Harvard degree - invent an early (this is 1928) form of lie detector, which they use to discomfort the pretty assistant (Heathcote), with whom they are both in love.

When it emerges that she returns their desires, the three set up a bisexual (trisexual?) ménage à trois, which, despite the Marstons being sacked from their facility, endures, producing a family, too, th the displeasure of theit neighbours.

I enjoyed the first half if the film, with its outspoken dialogue - 'How are you going to learn anytning about life', Hall asks Heathcote, 'if you don't live it' - but it seems that after an hour or so ther story has basically been told, and the film loses its way amid a sea of weepie clichés, shedding all its cutting edge.

Hall, as ever, though, is bang on the money.

David Quinlan

USA 2017. UK Distributor: Sony (Stage 6). Colour by Arri.
97 minutes. Widescreen. UK certificate: 15.

Guidance ratings (out of 3): Sex/nudity 2, Violence/Horror 0, Drugs 0, Swearing 2.

Review date: 06 Nov 2017