Phoebe may not be schizophrenic, but any movie that simultaneously wants to trouble and reassure, to keep it real and then traffic in wish fulfillment, certainly is.
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09/12/08
Phoebe In Wonderland (2009)
58
%
Tomatometer
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Reviews Counted:48
Fresh:28
Rotten:20
Average Rating:5.8/10
Consensus: Blessed with a good cast, Phoebe's heart is in the right place, but its execution is dicey.
Runtime: 1 hr 40 mins 1 sec
Genre: Dramas
Synopsis: So much of what constitutes psychological inquiry in cinema is overly simplistic, boiling down the complexity of behavior to clichés. So it’s exceptionally gratifying, when dealing with subjects as... [More]
Starring: Elle Fanning, Patricia Clarkson, Felicity Huffman, Bill Pullman
Director: Daniel Barnz
Reviews for Phoebe In Wonderland
Unfortunately, the film is insultingly soft in its portrayal of neurological disorders, linking the disease to Phoebe’s fanciful conversations with characters from Alice in Wonderland.
03/04/09
It's a young-girl-cracks-up movie in the mode of I Never Promised You a Rose Garden crossed with a theater vs. reality subtext that feels like A Child's First Synecdoche, New York.
03/03/09
Though Phoebe is nearly too dark for children and nearly too simple for adults, it succeeds as a swirling reminder of what it felt like to get lost in imagination
03/09/09
Phoebe in Wonderland has strong, well-nuanced performances and occasionally moving scenes, but often feels pretentious, uneven and slightly vapid.
03/08/09
I thought this was delightful, a little depressing at times but with three stellar performances from Fanning, Huffman, and Patricia Clarkson.
03/09/09
It needs the power of imagination to be done effectively and I just didn’t think it was here.
03/09/09
Elle Fanning, the ten-year-old sister of Dakota, can act like nobody's business, and it is her remarkable ability that carries an otherwise artistic mess of a movie.
03/09/09
Phoebe in Wonderland introduces us to a smart new talent in Barnz and lets the more established members of its cast work at their top capacity. It's a film about kids graced with a mature aesthetic and rare behavioral wisdom.
03/06/09
Barnz has made a poignant family movie that, despite its thematic material and brief profanity, is appropriate for mature 10-year-olds and older.
03/06/09
Believable and engaging, Fanning nearly renders the ensuing bore watchable
07/16/09
Writer-director Daniel Barnz manages to achieve a true and delicate balance for much of Phoebe in Wonderland, his first feature, but ultimately undermines himself with heavy-handed and rather hackneyed whimsy.
03/06/09
An uneven, unfocused amalgamation of ideas and moods that is at times deeply moving nonetheless.
03/06/09
[Elle Fanning is] an astonishingly natural and unmannered actress who carries this rather ungainly movie on her narrow shoulders.
03/06/09
"Phoebe in Wonderland" gradually morphs into a psychological drama of deep intensity, with an astounding performance by Fanning.
03/10/09
Elle Fanning gives one of the great child performances in this otherwise mixed study of a child with Tourette's Syndrome.
03/03/09
The mesmerizing performance of [Elle] Fanning as the gifted and troubled young Phoebe sparks the picture.
01/22/08
Top CriticA small movie in size, but large in heart and enthusiasm. Global warming be damned, Elle Fanning's smile alone could melt the polar ice caps.
03/06/09
Barnz's feature debut is well intentioned but dramatically unfocused, unable to decide exactly what it is propagaing, thus navigating between fantasy and reality and the serio, whimsical and lyrical.
03/04/09
The intentions...are good, and the picture boasts a fine lead performance, but ultimately...it's just a fancy disease-of-the-week movie that comes off confused and overly cute.
03/06/09
Latest News for Phoebe In Wonderland
March 18, 2009:
Elle Fanning excels in character study of mentally-troubled child. 
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February 15, 2009:
Trailer & Poster review
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