Phoebe in Wonderland

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Phoebe in Wonderland
Phoebe in Wonderland.jpg
Theatrical release poster
Directed byDaniel Barnz
Written byDaniel Barnz
Produced by
  • Ben Barnz
  • Lynette Howell
Starring
CinematographyBobby Bukowski
Edited byRobert Hoffman
Music byChristophe Beck
Production
company
Silverwood Films
Distributed byTHINKFilm
Release date
  • January 20, 2008 (2008-01-20) (Sundance)
  • March 6, 2009 (2009-03-06) (United States)
Running time
96 minutes
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish

Phoebe in Wonderland is a 2008 American drama film written and directed by Daniel Barnz.

It was screened in the Dramatic Competition at the 2008 Sundance Film Festival,[1] and received a limited theatrical release on March 6, 2009.

Plot[]

9-year-old girl Phoebe Lichten (Elle Fanning) has apparent Tourette syndrome and Obsessive–compulsive disorder.[2] She thrives with her family at home, but struggles in public school, particularly with the seemingly arbitrary rules and social norms. While she deals with being odd and insecure, her mother, Hillary (Felicity Huffman), and father, Peter (Bill Pullman), misinterpret Phoebe and her younger sister, Olivia (Bailee Madison), as child prodigies; Phoebe's mother, an author, pretentiously remarks that her daughters' poetry is reminiscent of E. E. Cummings. Phoebe tries to fit in with her peer group at school, befriending an effeminate boy named Jamie (Ian Coletti) who is frequently bullied, but some teasing on the playground leads to an incident where Phoebe spits at another student's face.

Phoebe's parents initially dismiss the spitting incident after they're called into the principal's office. They take Phoebe and Olivia to watch a live performance of the ballet Swan Lake, where Phoebe notably becomes entranced by the fashion and music. She also takes an interest in her school's new eccentric and mysterious drama teacher, Miss Dodger (Patricia Clarkson), a peculiar woman who quotes old literature, while the other teachers regard her with disdain. Phoebe seeks a role in Miss Dodger's school play, Alice In Wonderland; Miss Dodger initially dismisses her for her lateness, but becomes more accepting after learning that Phoebe has compulsive hand-washing rituals. Phoebe flourishes on stage, relaxing and feeling normal, but her impulsive speech and behaviour persist off-stage. Convinced that she'll be "fired" if she doesn't get patterns and lines exactly right, Phoebe spends hours at home jumping off the stairs until she bruises her ankles, while using her afternoons to step on every cobblestone in her household garden in the right order. Alarmingly for Hillary, Olivia tries to copy Phoebe's meticulous patterns. Becoming more invested in the play, Phoebe begins to envision imaginary friends, particularly Alice (Tessa Albertson) herself, the play's young female protagonist. Her parents hire a therapist for her, but after he proposes medication, Hillary fires him. She doesn't want to accept that there is anything wrong with Phoebe, believing instead that she's been a bad parent by focusing too much on completing her latest book, which happens to be Alice In Wonderland-themed. When the principal questions if Phoebe behaves oddly outside of the classroom, Hillary denies it even though she has many times witnessed her daughter's self-destructive rituals at home. Phoebe becomes an increasing embarrassment to Olivia, particularly after calling an obese woman a "fat pig" during a trick-or-treating event on Halloween. When Phoebe is taken out of the play due to her classroom behaviour, her dreams are shattered. Hillary, desperate to help her daughter feel normal, works with Miss Dodger to bring Phoebe back on stage.

Phoebe is falsely accused by bullies of murdering the class pet, "Carlitta", a hamster, and she spits at them. Meanwhile, Jamie, who won the female part of the Red Queen, has his costume vandalized with a homophobic slur spray-painted on it ("fagot [ sic ]"), and Phoebe holds his hand in a supportive gesture. Hillary meets Miss Dodger for the first time, and is stunned when the teacher claims that Phoebe exhibits no inappropriate behaviours or patterns during the play rehearsals. At the same time, she feels envious that Phoebe gets along better with a teacher than with her own mother. Seeming to reconcile with Olivia at home, both daughters cheerfully run around the house and play together, failing to notice how stressed Peter is by Phoebe's latent mental problems. The girls repeatedly shout that they "want babies!" (a new younger sibling to play with), and Peter quips that he couldn't handle another child if it turned out like Phoebe, hurting her feelings. Although Phoebe is put back into the play, her challenges continue as she is driven to behaviour she doesn't understand. She talks with Miss Dodger about her behaviour, and Miss Dodger suggests that as she grows older, she'll one day learn to admire herself for who she is rather than who the world wants her to be. After seeing her imaginary friend Alice again, Phoebe breaks her wrist jumping off the catwalk onto the stage, and Miss Dodger is fired when the principal suspects that she may have prompted Phoebe's act. Feeling betrayed by Miss Dodger's absence, Phoebe's fellow actors descend into chaos, smashing the sets they built, but Phoebe alone clings to a sense of purpose. She urges her classmates to continue their rehearsals on their own, and they do, including the students who had bullied Phoebe in the past. Hillary, who has resisted efforts to label Phoebe, tells Phoebe that she has Tourette syndrome, and Phoebe helps her classmates understand her by explaining her condition to them.

Cast[]

Production[]

Phoebe in Wonderland was submitted for the Sundance Film Festival in 2008, to the RiverRun International Film Festival in 2008, and was actress Elle Fanning's first lead role in a feature film, while co-actress Bailee Madison (Olivia) was already prevalent in other feature films, mainly Bridge to Terabithia. Phoebe in Wonderland also notably started the longtime career of child actress Tessa Albertson of Younger, when Albertson won the role of Phoebe's imaginary friend, Alice, a playful figment of the titular character's Tourette's syndrome. The first draft of Phoebe in Wonderland was written a year before Fanning was born. The DVD home video was released in 2009 by Image Entertainment, and later appeared on various popular streaming services, while the original trailers continued to appear on YouTube and DailyMotion.

Reception[]

Critical response[]

On review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of 61% based on 54 reviews, with an average rating of 6.00/10. The website's critics consensus reads, "Blessed with a good cast, Phoebe's heart is in the right place, but its execution is dicey."[3] Nathan Lee of NPR criticized the character of Phoebe, calling her, "the kind of 9-year-old who scrawls "I've got angst" on a paper airplane and tosses it into her parents' dinner party. She is, in other words, the type of moody little creature who exists exclusively in the precincts of the Oppressively Whimsical Coming of Age Movie."[4] On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 56 out of 100, based on 20 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews".[5]

Awards and nominations[]

On January 14, 2010, the film was nominated for Outstanding Film – Wide Release – at the 21st GLAAD Media Awards.[6]

References[]

  1. ^ "2008 Sundance Film Festival Announces Films in Competition" (PDF). November 28, 2007. Archived from the original (PDF) on June 25, 2008. Retrieved January 3, 2008.
  2. ^ Griffin, Mark (April 24, 2008). "Phoebe in Wonderland". Boston Globe. Retrieved August 2, 2009.
  3. ^ "Phoebe in Wonderland (2009)". Rotten Tomatoes. Fandango Media. Retrieved September 21, 2021.
  4. ^ Lee, Nathan. "'Phoebe In Wonderland': Anxiety, Angst And Alice". www.npr.org. National Public Radio (NPR). Retrieved October 24, 2021.
  5. ^ "Phoebe in Wonderland Reviews". Metacritic. CBS Interactive. Retrieved May 21, 2019.
  6. ^ "21st Annual GLAAD Media Awards – English Language Nominees". glaad.org. Retrieved January 14, 2010.

External links[]

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