Phoebe in Wonderland

What’s the Story?

Hillary (Felicity Huffman) knows her 9-year-old daughter marches to the beat of her own drum. Phoebe (Elle Fanning, in an excellent performance) is creative, charismatic, and, yes, troubled. Her world's delicate balance is easily upended, sending her into loops of destructive and obsessive-compulsive behavior (incessant hand-washing, repeating specific stepping sequences). It's hard on her family: Her father is overwhelmed, her younger sister is tired of Phoebe getting all the attention, and Hillary is nearly lost. They all wonder if Phoebe will ever conquer her demons. A lead part in the school play, Alice in Wonderland, and quirky drama teacher Miss Dodger (Patricia Clarkson), may be Phoebe's salvation ... until the principal (Campbell Scott) decides to punish her for another behavioral mishap by yanking her out of it. Everyone wonders: What's wrong with Phoebe?

Is It Any Good?

Visually appealing and full of surprises, PHOEBE IN WONDERLAND takes audiences on a fanciful journey into a strange world spun by a complicated child. And what a vivid place it is! Writer-director Daniel Barnz paints a colorful, whimsical universe for Phoebe -- one worthy of Alice herself. But it's also moody and foreboding, where life requires running hard just to stay in place, where familiar behaviors both soothe and torment, and where your own skin doesn't feel so good to live in. The grown-ups don't appear to have the answers, either, except perhaps to brand Phoebe as eccentric or problematic.

Barnz keeps the feel kinetic and highly stylized with quick cuts and costumed characters. Everything is made to feel allegorical: Clarkson's Miss Dodger, Scott's principal, and even Phoebe's classmates are all rendered left of center. It's all well and good -- except for the fact that it somewhat misrepresents the film. Viewers expect an oddball denouement, or maybe even a creepy one. But that's not what they get. For what ails Phoebe isn't some mystery or eccentricity; it's something very real and heartbreaking. And when it's revealed, all that fantasy seems unnecessary. The film already does a great job exploring the isolated -- and isolating -- corners of parenting, and it doesn't really need all that whimsy to make its point. With fewer fantastical bells and whistles, PHOEBE IN WONDERLAND wouldn't have been as look-at-me dazzling. But it would have been far more powerful.