Parents' Guide to Professor Marston and the Wonder Women

Bolstered by excellent performances, this earnest biopic elevates the ménage à trois to its truest meaning: a "household of three." What should seem scandalous is portrayed as inevitable from the very first time Olive is backlit like a porcelain-skinned goddess in the Marstons' class. Hall is particularly outstanding as the put-upon Elizabeth, who's every bit as intelligent as her husband but can't convince Harvard to admit her to a Ph.D. program. The blunt, brilliant woman tells her husband that she doesn't experience sexual jealousy, yet the moment they hire Olive as an assistant, Elizabeth asks her not to sleep with her husband. It turns out that while Bill is smitten with Olive, she's actually fallen for Elizabeth, even though Olive is engaged to a man who thinks the Marstons are perverse.

Eventually -- and thanks to the lie-detector test the Marstons helped invent (or at least improve) -- the truth is revealed. All three of them harbor sexual feelings for one another. The story fast-forwards, showing how the trio (now with kids!) has moved, Big Love-style, into a suburban home. By the time Bill takes the women to a lingerie shop that's a front for a circle of BDSM aficionados, it's crystal clear how he was inspired by his two lovers to create Wonder Woman: the lasso of truth, the bracelets of submission, and so forth. Fascinating if overly fictionalized, this is a compelling look at just how subversive the feminist superhero really was -- and, if director Angela Robinson's interpretation is substantiated, still could be perceived.