I wasn't aware that the comic book heroine Wonder Woman arose from such controversial beginnings. Sticking around to the very end of the movie you get a glimpse of the real Dr. William Moulton Marston, and one has to wonder how he wound up with two women attracted to him, though to be fair, those women didn't look like Rebecca Hall and Bella Heathcote either. Ostensibly cast for their appeal to modern day viewers, I tried to picture less favorable looking players in the story and it just didn't work. I won't say I was shocked by the depiction of Marston's life style with his wife and lover, but the first time I heard the f-word out of Elizabeth Marston's (Hall) mouth, I had a pretty good idea that it was used for shock value and not really an accurate representation of dialog in the 1920's and 30's. Such language, particularly it's frequent repetition, didn't ring true as the story played out.
The picture also helped identify an earlier era in which morals and values were tested, and in which the Marston's life style was considered off limits for the 'average' American. Growing up in the Sixties made it seem like the moral breakdown of the country was just getting under way at that time, but here it's preceded by almost four decades. Actually, some movies made in the Twenties and Thirties are kind of racy in and of themselves, especially when you get to some of the classic cult and exploitation flicks of the era like "Gambling With Souls" and "Slaves in Bondage". Those weren't being seen by underage kids, at least I don't think so, so the introduction of topics like sex, bondage and prostitution in the pages of a dime comic made it seem all the more scandalous and available.
I thought the movie was OK, but I'm certain that much of it was fictionalized based on my earlier observation and the comments of other reviewers on this board. Admittedly, some of the scenes border on soft porn territory without getting overly graphic. But if even the thought that it might make one uncomfortable, the better advice is to not even go there.
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