Phoebe in Wonderland (2009)

I like the storyline of this show,it attract me so much

A Masterpiece!

A terrific literary drama and character piece that shows how the process of creating art can be seen differently by those doing it and those looking at it from the outside.

It's the kind of movie you'll want to see a second time with someone who hasn't seen it yet, to remember what it was like to watch it for the first time.

Watched 21 minutes of this 71 minute flick. All I could handle. Really wanted to like it but here's the problems: a) So far the mom has just cried or been on verge of tears in every scene. Really? In front of dinner guests at a "party"? Man that'd be fun! Oh and way to take out your failed writing career on your 8 year old daughter.b) Didn't take Hollywood long to ruin the entire movie by adding sexual deviancy to the mix. Really? An 8 year old boy playing the Queen of hearts. Director is clearly a pedophile. Let's just groom them young. Congrats pervert.Do not let your children watch this movie for any reason, unless of course you want them to be homosexual.

Independent film, they have been most known to be releasing things that are considered to be crap. However I am a huge supporter of indie film because there can be some great gems in the mix. This is one of them.The plot of this movie is that a 9 year old girl named Phoebe is something of a child prodigy. However lately she has been acting strangely and has behavioral issues at school of which she seems to have little restraint (despite her wanting to). She signs up for a school play adaptation of Alice In Wonderland. The rather odd drama teacher casts her for the leading role. She befriends a boy named Jamie who plays The Queen Of Hearts. As time goes on she becomes more attached to Wonderland, blurs the lines of fantasy and reality as well as dealing with a mental illness.The acting is phenomenal from everybody. I never knew Elle Fanning could act let alone act this well. She acted and felt like an outcast child with mental problems. Everybody else does a good job as well but at the end of the day it is Fanning's show and she carries the movie well.So to keep this review short, if you like the sort of drama film that involves anything about what I said above, then I think you should go see it. Previous reviews have said that the mental illness explanation wasn't very well done and reading about Tourette syndrome right now, it is. However if you can look past that for the final 5 minutes of the film (when they gave the mental illness a name) then this is definitely worth a look.

When it's good, it's terrific, including an amazing performance by a very young Elle Fanning as a mentally troubled 8 year old, and good work by Felicity Huffman, and the always wonderful Patricia Clarkson. On the other hand, the very talented Campbell Scott is reduced to playing a one note joke, and the tone of the film is all over the place; odd quirky comedy one moment, a child contemplating suicide the next. But the real problems are when the film's Lifetime network roots show through, and suddenly there's that warm, fuzzy, phony feeling that being a kid with severe emotional problems isn't all that bad, and everything will be just fine. It undermines the film's interesting attempts to really get inside a struggling kid's head.None-the-less, the film gets real points for trying, and about 80% of the time, this is a very good, and very original film.

I had not seen, nor heard of this film prior to a recommendation from Netflix. As a fan of works that bridge reality and imagination, I had high hopes, and was not disappointed. The characters feel honest and accurate. The acting is solid across children and adults, leading and supporting roles. Fanning and Clarkson are particularly brilliant, while Ian Colletti is surprisingly strong in a challenging role for a young boy. The directing style and camera movement effectively conveys the roller coaster of emotions and perceptions young Phoebe has, without overpowering subtleties in the acting. The music is perfectly in sync, a rarity in independent films today. Most importantly, the heart of the story captured me immediately and completely.There were, however, some flaws which keep this from achieving perfection. The first being Felicity Huffman's hair. It is clearly a wig and has an unnatural look about it. It looks like one used for the "cancer patient" on a medical drama. That should have been fixed. The next being slips in pace. 95% of the film is at Phoebe's pace. She is our hero, she moves the story. That works great. In the few scenes between just Pullman and Huffman, however, the pace slows, creating an awkward hiccup. Minor changes, maybe just in editing, could have solved this.Finally, and most detrimental, is the "official" diagnosis of Phoebe's condition. The whole film shows her spirit and imagination pitted against her struggles with an affliction. That makes her this special individual, someone we care about. The conclusion, however, gives her this label, a diagnosis. What she has doesn't matter. How she deals with it does. Barnz should have taken a note from Tim Burton's "Big Fish." Burton didn't conclude the journey by forcing Edward Bloom to see the world as everyone else did. His son Will, instead, finally views the world through Edward's eyes. Barnz concluded Phoebe's journey with a simple diagnosis, rather than a profound revelation. Unfortunately, Phoebe's revelation is what I really wanted.While not perfect, it still remains captivating, moving and enchanting. This story, under the direction of Tim Burton, Spike Jonez or Barry Sonnenfeld (see Pushing Daisies), may have been perfected. Under Bo Welch or Chris Weitz, it could have been forgettable. While Barnz lacks experience, the story is close to his heart, and that's what shines through. It's not perfect, but it's pretty close.