| Review:
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In no way a disease of the week weepie, or contemporary
mutilation of the screen classic in question either, Phoebe
In Wonderland does delve into childhood affliction and fantasy,
but with an utterly enchanting and sensitively crafted poignant
touch of first time writer/director Daniel Barnz. The filmmaker
also succeeds in amazing with never less than convincing
multiple emotional points of view in which flawed human
beings aren't pigeon-holed as saints or sinners.***
Evidently following in the footsteps of her precocious
older sibling Dakota, ten year old Elle Fanning is Phoebe
Lichten, a troubled suburban schoolgirl experiencing symptoms
that include obsessive compulsive step climbing and handwashing
till her skin bleeds, uncontrollable hurling of insults
and spitting at schoolmates when they tease her, and a fixation
on roof ledges while trying to keep herself from jumping
off them. Her parents (Felicity Huffman and Bill Pullman),
who seem to have their own fixations on their writing careers,
are more often than not into denial about Phoebe's behavior,
dismissing her episodes as phases she'll grow out of eventually.
Or, perhaps the result of a child with a creative mind of
her own, mirroring her own parents as dedicated nonconformists.***
Always on the verge of being thrown out of school,
Phoebe, who does indeed have the family DNA of a gifted
imagination, is drawn to the new drama teacher, Miss Dodger
(Patricia Clarkson), who is intent on mounting a student
production of Alice In Wonderland. The two rather whimsically
minded kindred souls for whom everyday reality is merely
an impediment to creative inspiration, magically bond when
Phoebe is chosen to play Alice, a situation which sparks
maternal jealousy in her alienated mom, and overall exasperation
on the part of the school authorities, who assess in the
teacher's captivating influence over these children, a pathological
loon. Think Andrew Fleming's adventure through the weirdness
of youth academia in Hamlet 2, but without the oddball banter
set to music.***
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