Professor Marston and the Wonder Women (2017) is a biographical drama about psychologist William Moulton Marston (Luke Evans), the creator of Wonder Woman. The film explores his unconventional polyamorous relationship with his wife, Elizabeth (Rebecca Hall), and their research assistant, Olive Byrne (Bella Heathcote). As Marston develops the lie detector, their dynamic, rooted in themes of love, bondage, and feminism, inspires the iconic superheroine, with many of her traits drawn from their lives.
Professor Marston has a lot going for it regarding bi representation, avoiding the pitfall of having this story focus on gratuitous threesome scenes through the lens of the male gaze. If anything, this movie does an incredible job of portraying the lives of two bi women and the troubles they have to overcome to be together, societally and with themselves.
Coincidentally, the film is also a rare example of an ultimately healthy and happy non-monogamous relationship (in this case, a triad or “throuple”) living and working, and loving together. All main characters are well-realized, with hopes, fears, and dreams of their own. The film also shows the very real consequences of living as openly queer or in an unconventional relationship dynamic in that era, the risks they had to take, and their every day struggles. There is even a moment where their children experience harassment due to the nature of their parents’ relationship coming to light.
Although not everything is wonderful about the movie, since Marston’s characterization of the two women as together forming “the perfect woman” risks reinforcing a reductive Madonna-whore dichotomy, which undermines their individuality and fails to recognize them as complete, complex people.
In press interviews, writer-director Angela Robinson did not shy away from speaking about the women’s queerness and why it was important for the story.
From her interview with Vulture:
One component of that interpretation that got brought up at the panel was the queer relationship between Olive and Elizabeth. Was that based on research you’d done, or was that just your interpretation?
I mean, it’s both. This is one of those things that’s kind of tricky about history, especially history that has been obscured because of the relationships and because of society, and many things. But there’s certain facts that are indisputable about the Marstons’ lives, which everybody agrees on, and there are certain ones that are open to interpretation. You know what I mean? It’s how you choose to interpret those facts. So that’s how I chose to interpret them.
Were you nervous about portraying those kinds of speculative interpretations, given that they were about real people with surviving family?
[Long pause.] In a way. I felt like I kind of went on my own journey, discovering, trying to do detective work, and what I came to was that the Marstons were these wonderful people with a lot of love in their lives. I was especially struck by the fact that Elizabeth and Olive lived together for 38 years after Marston died. So, I wanted to tell a story about that love and what I thought was happening.
And from her interview with Wired:
What I’m really excited about … Well, actually, so I’ve been on—because I’m a black and gay woman, I’m always on a panel. [Laughs] But I think it was like five years ago, I was on this panel and the topic was moving from coming-out stories to the next movement in queer cinema, and I kind of feel like that’s happening. What I tried to do with this film, they’re never trying to figure out “Is it bad or good what I’m feeling?” Do you know? There’s definitely self-acceptance in the film, but that’s not what the drama is circling around. It’s circling around. This is what we’re doing, how do we live our lives?
Ultimately, Professor Marston and the Wonder Women covers the fascinating story of living queerly, and happily, in a poly triad gave birth to the most iconic female comic hero of the 20th century. It is carefully and joyfully made, with love and consideration, and is ultimately a great example of bi representation in modern film.