Professor Marston and the Wonder Women doesn't tell the truth about the creator of Wonder Woman, according to Marston's own descendants. The film purports to the tell the tale of the creation of the iconic comic book character Wonder Woman, through the prism of its creator, William Moulton Marston (Luke Evans in the film), and his relationship with both his wife Elizabeth (Rebecca Hall) and their mutual young lover Olive Byrne (Bella Heathcote.) These women, the story goes, helped inspire the creation of the character, while also drawing the ire of of religious moralists and book burners, as the three of them lived together as lovers.
The film, arriving but a few months after Patty Jenkins' live-action Wonder Woman movie was released in theaters, goes to some risque places; including, depicting the three protagonists as a polyamorous family unit, one that produced several children. Now however, Marston's family is objecting to their depiction in the film; both to their not having been consulted and to specific content in the film itself.
Related: What Wonder Woman Secrets Does Professor Marston Reveal?
In an interview with the website BigFanBoy, Christie Marston, a granddaughter of William Moulton Marston and the daughter of one of his sons, raises numerous objections about the Professor Marston film - on everything from the film's posters and marketing to small details to its depiction of the nature of the protagonists' relationship.
According to Christie Marston, "both the depiction of the family and Wonder Woman’s origins are made up." She claims that while both women were the mothers of children by William Marston, they "were as sisters" and "no love triangle was ever hinted at." She also takes issue with errors of continuity; a burning of comic books, shown with Marston present, actually took place after his death. She did state, though, that she and her family loved the live-action Wonder Woman movie.
The film is not strictly based on any book or single primary source - and for her part, Robinson has stated in multiple interviews that she based the film on some artistic license, as the historical record is far from clear. Evans likewise told Screen Rant in an interview that Robinson "took the fact that we have and then she used her interpretation, because there's a lot of information about them - they were a very private family and they didn't ever talk about their relationship very much in the press, although people knew what was going on."
Can these criticisms hurt Professor Marston? Well, considering the film's paltry domestic box office performance - in a wide, 1,200-screen release on its opening weekend, the film earned just $737,000, good for 13th place - there's not much left to hurt. Questions about historical films' accuracy have often hurt their awards chances over the years. However, despite positive critical notices and a Tomatometer score in the 80s, Professor Marston's Oscar odds are probably not so great at this point (more so than even this year's other Wonder Woman movie).
NEXT: Professor Marston Cast Loved the Wonder Woman Movie
Source: Big Fan Boy
