Professor Marston and the Wonder Women (2017) Movie Review

💫 Love, Truth, Creation – The Real Story of Three People Behind the Origin of Wonder Woman

🎥 Movie Overview

🎬 Title: Professor Marston and the Wonder Women (2017)
🌍 Country: 🇺🇸 USA
🎞️ Genre: Biography / Drama / Queer Romance
📢 Director & Screenwriter: Angela Robinson
📺 Platform: Netflix, Amazon Prime, Apple TV (VOD)

👩‍💼 Cast: Luke Evans – William Moulton Marston
Rebecca Hall – Elizabeth Marston
Bella Heathcote – Olive Byrne

🧩 In-Depth Story Exploration (Spoilers)

🔎 The Meeting of Three and Their Hidden Relationship

The film uses Professor William Marston’s 1945 testimony before a comic book review board regarding the “obscene” content as a frame narrative to reflect on the past. William Marston, teaching psychology at Harvard and Radcliffe, and his intelligent but academically marginalized wife, Elizabeth, collaborate on research developing an early version of the Lie Detector.

❤️ Love, Consent, and Family Structure

William hires Olive Byrne, a student in his class and a feminist, as a research assistant. Soon, both William and Elizabeth are attracted to Olive, and through the lie detector experiments, they discover deep mutual feelings, beginning a polyamorous relationship (ménage à trois). As news of their unconventional relationship spreads, the Marstons are dismissed from the university and ostracized from academia. The three settle in suburban New York, posing Olive as a boarder while raising children together as a family unit.

🌟 The Philosophy Behind Wonder Woman

After leaving academia, William turns his attention to the media and, inspired by his DISC theory on Dominance and Submission, Elizabeth’s intellect and strength, and Olive’s bracelets and style, he creates a superhero. This character is born as Wonder Woman, embodying the ideal of a woman-led utopian society.

🦋 Emotional Resonance and Significance

🎬 Angela Robinson’s Delicate Direction

The director, deeply interested in queer and gender identities, portrays the relationship between ‘love and creation’ with sensitivity and authenticity. Visually, the 1920s–30s atmosphere is faithfully captured while naturally conveying the characters’ emotional arcs, beautifully expressing the freedom of love blossoming within societal constraints.

🌈 Social Taboo and Personal Choice

The film explores the boundaries of what is considered “normal,” depicting the deep love among the three with emotional truthfulness. Their relationship challenges social norms and represents a pursuit of true freedom. Through Wonder Woman, William Marston sought to showcase women’s power, capability, and superiority to the public. The movie demonstrates how Marston’s psychological theories (DISC) and private life were interwoven into the symbols of Wonder Woman (the lasso of truth, Amazonian female strength).

The film illustrates how the creators’ private and sometimes shocking experiences became decisive inspiration for a great work of art, namely the creation of an iconic superhero.

✨ A New Perspective on the Birth of Wonder Woman

While the film emphasizes it is “based on a true story,” some descendants of the Marston family have noted that details about the sexual relationship between Elizabeth and Olive depicted in the film are either unproven or dramatically fictionalized. The movie is a captivating biopic that re-examines the forbidden love story behind the Wonder Woman icon and the pioneering ideas of its creator.

🎯 Personal Rating

💕 Love Scene Intensity: ♥♥♥♥
⭐ Rating: ★★★★★