The hype machine makes it difficult, but there’s a lot to be said for not knowing much about a movie before you see it.
I’m glad I didn’t know much about “Phoebe in Wonderland” going into it, because this modest picture would have unfolded in a very different way if I had. It’s enough to say that the movie is about a little girl who is different, and leave the specifics at that.
She is Phoebe (played by Elle Fanning), a kid who finally finds her real voice in the theater program at school. Her eccentric drama teacher (Patricia Clarkson) is putting on “Alice in Wonderland,” and Phoebe has the lead part written all over her.
The film follows Phoebe’s experiences in the play, as well as her parents’ increasing frustration about why she’s so unusual.
Elements of fantasy enter into Phoebe’s world, as she “sees” characters from “Alice” around her and has a tendency to retreat into her own world.
Clarkson’s teacher isn’t part of that fantasy, although she seems entirely made up by writer-director Daniel Barnz. The teacher (who is first seen poking her head into a classroom and reciting a few lines of Lewis Carroll’s “Jabberwocky”) has a wiggy approach, allowing the kids in the play to do their own staging.
I don’t think this person ever really existed, but if she did, she was the most annoying drama teacher ever. Clarkson does what she can with the role.
Bill Pullman plays Phoebe’s father, and Campbell Scott gives a fussy and amusing performance as the school’s principal, who is not at all amused about the play.
First-time director Barnz has a fairly heavy hand; for instance, incorporating “Swan Lake” into the story so that we realize this is a story of transformation. Two casting decisions, however, elevate the movie into better-than-average range.
Elle Fanning, the younger sister of Dakota Fanning, carries on the family tradition of preternatural talent. There’s a spooky touch of the uncanny about her performance, which fits the character perfectly.
And Felicity Huffman is exceptionally good as Phoebe’s mother. Huffman (whose employment on “Desperate Housewives” is akin to Robert De Niro spending five years on “Starsky and Hutch”) creates a smart, difficult character who means well but isn’t always right.
It’s a truly grown-up conception of a parent, and it lifts the movie out of the Afternoon Special school of social-issue pictures.
“Phoebe in Wonderland”
A somewhat heavy-handed look at a “different” child is elevated by two exceptional performances: Elle Fanning as the little girl, and Felicity Huffman as her smart, well-meaning, not always right mother. Most of the story concerns a school production of “Alice in Wonderland” — thus the title.
Rated: PG-13 for subject matter.
Showing: Varsity
Talk to us
> Give us your news tips.
> Send us a letter to the editor.
> More Herald contact information.
