Writer-director Alice Rohrwacher has developed an impressive career since unveiling her autobiographical first feature, Corpo Celeste, in 2012, and this followup, a comparably sweet-natured coming-of-age story set in the northern Italian countryside, won her the grand prix at last year’s Cannes film festival. It has the same gentle fluency, the same feeling for a visual flourish – though I wonder if it is all a bit insubstantial.
A farmer and his family with a minor business producing honey are offered two opportunities for cash. One is when the social services offer them money to look after a 14-year-old boy who has been ordered into a family rehab programme. The other is when they get the chance to compete for a wacky TV competition in which the contestants are farmers – hosted by no less a person than Monica Bellucci, in a queenly cameo.
These remarkable events have a potent effect on the family’s mature and thoughtful eldest daughter, Gelsomina (Maria Alexandra Lungu), accelerating her entry into womanhood; the “wonders” of the title could mean those natural unheralded wonders of nature that occur when children start to become grownups independent of their mum and dad. A likable, if sentimental movie.
