By

Wonder

Perfunctory compassion

Auggie was born with a disfigured face (the PC term is “facial differences”), and homeschooled until the 5th grade. This is the story of how he battled prejudice and eventually won over everyone with his intelligence and inner beauty. Gag. Auggie is played by Jacob Tremblay (Room), and his parents by Julia Roberts and Owen Wilson. No thespian abilities are challenged here.  It’s hard to knock any anti-bullying movie, but cinematically this is pretty inert and bypasses other truly difficult issues. It hits all the emotional buttons but remains more or less perfunctory, never rising above Hallmark level. (113 min)