'Phoebe in Wonderland' review

Elle Fanning (Credit: ThinkFilm)

Photos:

Young Phoebe (Elle Fanning) is imaginative, creative and dreamy-eyed. She's basically your typical grade-schooler, save for one stark fact—she suffers from a debilitating mental illness that causes her to withdraw from her classmates, her teachers and, eventually, her family (including parents played by Felicity Huffman and Bill Pullman). Her solace is a school production of "Alice in Wonderland" helmed by a stern but inspiring drama teacher (Patricia Clarkson), who provides Phoebe with a doorway to her own imagined wonderland—one where whimsical kings, queens, knaves and white rabbits provide an escape from a painful reality.

The buzz: First-time director Daniel Barnz has assembled a top-notch cast that includes two Oscar nominees: Huffman, playing Phoebe's doting, if tortured, mother; and Clarkson as the drama teacher with a touch of Mrs. Danvers from Hitchcock's "Rebecca." Precocious Fanning, younger sister of Dakota and the young Daisy in "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button," takes the lead role at the tender age of nine. Mommy Fanning might want to start bottling the family's water supply and peddling it to stage moms everywhere.

The verdict: Don't let the film's playful name fool you—it's far from a fairy tale. Despite trippy flights of fantasy, "Phoebe" remains firmly grounded in the all-too-real struggles of a family dealing with a child's deteriorating mental health. And it can tough to watch, as we see Phoebe succumb to the compulsions that eventually consume her. Huffman, pulling from her "Desperate Housewives" bag of tricks, delicately swings between guilt and protectiveness, while Fanning maintains a captivating emotional transparency. Director Barnz delivers a solid debut, but the film is ultimately unable to strike the right balance between reality and fantasy—Phoebe's hallucinations come across as half-baked. And the reliance on cutesy "Aw, look at 'em kids!" gimmicks can be distracting. Be prepared for a song-and-dance number. Seriously.

Did you know: Although it was filmed a few years later, Felicity Huffman actually landed her part before getting cast in "Desperate Housewives." "Phoebe" may have been her best prep workshop for her Emmy-winning performance on the hit series.

Add a comment