Professor Marston and the Wonder Women

I am so, so thankful a lesbian directed Professor Marston and the Wonder Women. I think it would have been a different, worse movie had it not been.

Professor Marston and the Wonder Women is about the creation of the Wonder Woman comic. Psychology professor William Marston is interested in the psychology of submission. His equally brilliant wife, Elizabeth helps him in his research. Marston hires a young assistant named Olive. After some initial jealousy from Elizabeth, both she and William begin a poly relationship with Olive. The three are happy until their relationship is found out by the school and all lose their positions. Elizabeth begins working as a secretary and William tries to write more popular papers to support them. They also use this time to grow their family. Eventually, William becomes interested in bondage and costumed sex. He also starts drafting a comic that would become Wonder Woman. The movie is framed using an obscenity committee about Wonder Woman that William attends and attempts to defend his comic book heroine and lifestyle overall.

I wasn’t sure if Professor Marston was going to actually qualify for my site because of the fact that the main character is a man. But fear not! Much as his name might be in the title, him Olive and Elizabeth share duties as the protagonist. All three have pretty equal amounts of screen time and the women have their own arcs not related to William.

And then there’s the polyamorous romance angle. Again, I was worried this relationship of a man and two women was just going to be a double dose of heterosexuality. Nope! The majority of romantic moments are between Elizabeth and Olive. They share the first two romantic kisses. Additionally, at the end of the movie when Olive is deciding whether to return to William and Elizabeth, William is almost a third wheel. The scene is framed around Olive and Elizabeth and they’re the ones who share the dialogue. Even the sex scenes are largely Elizabeth and Olive instigating between each other. William’s often sort of off to the side just looking delighted. This is why I’m so glad this movie was directed by a lesbian. This relationship and sexual dynamic would have probably looked much differently under another, non-lesbian director.

In general, I really love this relationship. I think a lot of creators would have chosen to make this kinky, poly relationship be quite salacious. But Professor Marston isn’t that kinky at all. Most of the scenes of this triad relationship are about their day-to-day and domesticity. The one scene with all three of them in bed is just of them sleeping curled up together. It’s a very loving, sweet relationship of a poly relationship. It definitely depicts there was more to this relationship than sex.

Honestly, as a biopic, Professor Marston is a little by the numbers. It’s not doing anything new with this genre and is a bit predictable. They use a present conflict and tie it into thematically similar flashbacks that reveal the story. There’s nothing wrong with that but it’s not new either. But hell, there’s so many by the numbers straight biopics so whatever, why not. It’s not fair of me to ask Angela Robinson to reinvent the biopic genre.

Predictable framework or not, I really liked Professor Marston and the Wonder Women. It’s a queer biopic that didn’t shove its characters back in the closet nor sensationalize their lifestyle. It depicted a very loving, sweet triad relationship. I’ve no idea how historically accurate it is, but I enjoyed watching this loving, queer, female-centric take on this story.

Overall rating: 8.5/10

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