In the end, Lelio earns the powerful close of The Wonder with every temperate turn. His film, a career-best, departs like a birdsong, with an optimistic finale as perfect and revelatory as they come.

Nothing would work quite as well without the performance by Pugh. She commands the screen from her very first appearance, and we never have doubts that anyone who tries to interfere with her will be facing a formidable adversary.

Lelio and his co-writers have made a smart, subtle disquisition on the necessity of both skepticism and faith, with a particularly keen understanding of religion’s uses and abuses.

A film about the danger of believing without questioning that turns us into full-throated believers in whatever Lelio and Pugh can do.

Surrounded by a solid ensemble of cast iron characters actors, The Wonder tries to address some serious issues beneath the guise of a beguiling period piece. What audiences are ultimately left with equates to a moral fable with female empowerment holding things together.