Phoebe in Wonderland

Surprisingly Awesome
Wow. I put this on at 2 am thinking it was a kids movie that I could watch as I drifted to sleep. I was very wrong. Instead, it's a complex, deep, insightful masterpiece that made me cry two or three times.

Don't be fooled by the cover. This is not a movie for children. The story focuses on a free-willed family with writer/scholar parents, and very bright young daughters. The lightheartedness slowly gives way to a deep heartfelt story of a young girl developing OCD and Tourettes while just trying to keep her lead in the school play of Alice in Wonderland. Her drama teacher, played by Patricia Clarkson, is a quiet, Nanny McPhee-type who is able to connect to Phoebe a little bit better than everyone else. I almost got annoyed with that, since it is rather cliche, but it's really Phoebe's mom (the brilliant Felicity Huffman) who connects with Phoebe the most. You'll laugh one moment and cry the next as you take this journey with such an endearing and interesting family. Phoebe...

Hard to rate this movie
This movie is very hard to rate. First off, the trailer I saw completely misrepresented this movie, making it seem like it was a cheerful, light-hearted movie about a young girl who is offbeat, imaginative, and misunderstood. Going into the movie with this expectation threw me off because the movie is not this at all, but it takes a while to reveal what it really is about. Meanwhile, I kept wondering when the lighthearted part was going to start. It is not lighthearted. It is a very serious movie about ...

BEGIN SPOILER

... a young girl, Phoebe, who is developing Tourrette syndrome with some associated OCD behavior. (As an aside, the Tourrette syndrome behavior pictured in this movie is pretty accurate.) She knows something is wrong but she just can't help saying and doing the things she is doing that are causing so much disruption in everyone's lives. Her mother is in denial about the severity of the problem and also blames herself for Phoebe's behavior,...

Great performances, great film
The hype of this film prior to me even getting it in the store was higher than I had anticipated and I am actually having to order twice as many now. After playing it for screening audiences, word of mouth is making the demand even greater.

The Amazon editorial delves plenty deep into all of the characteristics and relationships being played in this film and to what adequacy the acting appeared. I was thoroughly impressed with how everyone filled their roles to where both kids and adults would get something out of this. The visuals of fantasy and reality blurring together were done believably, and the resulting outlooks left with the viewer about adults in a kids world were moving and well written.

Pullman was useless in the film as a father, but he played it perfect, as did Huffman in another obscure mother character role. Fanning proves she has a bright future with how she convinced both kids and adults what she was feeling and seeing in both worlds. The...

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