What if I were to tell you that the creator of Wonder Woman was a psychologist, the inventor of the lie detector, was in an open relationship with two women, and was a BDSM enthusiast. Now, what if I told you that the biopic about the man who transformed the comic book industry contained none of the adventurousness, intrigue, or daring of his lifestyle? That deflating sense of disappointment is one you’ll become familiar with watching “Professor Marston And The Wonder Women,” which takes an uninspiring, conventional approach to a fascinating, unconventional story.
Idealistic, progressive, and maybe a bit naive, Professor William Marston (Luke Evans) pushes his DISC theory — which purports that all human behavior is influenced by either dominance, inducement, submission or compliance — on his all-female student body at Radcliffe. Outside the classroom, William pursues further scientific research with his equally brilliant wife Elizabeth (Rebecca Hall), who sees who her own career stymied by the academic sexism of the day. But William values her brain, and her open-mindedness, which comes in handy when Olivia (Bella Heathcote), his new assistant, comes into their world. Knowing her husband’s wandering eye, Elizabeth is initially threatened by Olivia, until the trio all fall in love with each other. Breaking off her engagement with her more conservative-minded fiancé, Olivia consummates her relationship with William and Elizabeth with a corny threeway on the stage of an empty theater, that’s all soft focus, and devoid of any palpable eroticism or sense of discovery, especially considering this is (presumably) new sexual territory for all involved.
Keeping the kink decidedly unkinky is the unfortunate approach writer/director Angela Robinson (“D.E.B.S.,” “Herbie Fully Loaded”) takes with ‘Professor Marston.’ Utilizing a clunky flashback structure in which Josette Frank (Connie Britton), director of the Child Study Association of America, grills William in the 1950s about the subversive subtext of his smash hit comic, the film is honeyed both literally (through the duly pleasant cinematography by Bryce Fortner) and figuratively as it looks to the past. The trio encounter hardship — William is fired from Harvard when details of his unorthodox living arrangement gets out; their eventual children are bullied; Elizabeth frets constantly — but push through as a united front. Whatever the household dynamics and emotional complexity might be between the three is left to the sideline. If the story were set today, that approach might be progressive, but considering the Marstons were doing this at a time when the very idea of their living together harmoniously was scandalous, it’s certainly a curious choice to leave this unexplored.
Essentially, ‘Professor Marston’ pursues the idea that the Wonder Woman comics — with their underlying themes of submission and domination — appealed to a public that was perhaps more saucy behind closed doors than the morally conservative cultural gatekeepers might think. It’s hardly an eye-opening revelation, but the film takes a lot of time underlining that tired point. And it does so with a distracting lack of dramatic weight. Evans, Hall and Heathcote all perform ably, but the dialogue is often stagey or robotic; the picture rarely feels like these are real people having actual conversations. Instead, positioning its themes and the necessary plot points it needs to hit at the fore, ‘Professor Marston’ often feels more informational than impassioned.
“What is normal?” William Marston asks his students early on, and while the class ponders how societal boundaries become codified, one wishes the filmmakers had asked the same question in terms of putting together this film. “Professor Marston And The Wonder Women” tackles one of the most curious chapters of comic book history with an overly classy sheen. It’s almost as if Robinson and co. didn’t want to take the story out of its protective mylar bag, when a little bit of grit would’ve done wonders. [C]
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