Phoebe in WonderlandElle performs a world class role as Phoebe, a girl beginning to show symptoms of a mental disorder who escapes reality into Alice's Wonderland.
Long overdue, in this film Elle is finally given the lead role, and does
she ever rise to the occasion. All of the cast does well, but Elle
completely steals the show.
We get to know Phoebe as an inquisitive nine-year-old, puzzled by a teacher
telling her that asking when to ask questions is only to be done when it's
time to ask questions – a decidedly Alice-in-Wonderlandy notion. Her
emerging bad behavior – spitting at a class mate – brings her into
conflict with the teachers and their long lists of rules. Phoebe also
starts blurting out things she knows she shouldn't say. And above all,
there is obsessive-compulsive behavior, such as ritualistically stepping on
each floor tile in the hallway, or jumping between stairs in a precise
order.
 Phoebe with her parents The school's drama teacher, Miss Dodger, stands in exaggerated contrast to
the others. She believes in letting the children discover things by
themselves. After much deliberation, Phoebe attends Dodger's audition for
an Alice in Wonderland musical. Arriving tardy, Phoebe starts the audition
off on the wrong note, but Dodger catches a glimpse of her bloody knuckles
and after Phoebe explains that "I have to wash my hands a certain number of
times," she is allowed to continue the audition.
Phoebe gets the role of Alice, and turns out to be an outstanding actress
(and Elle a fine singer!). On the stage, she forgets her anxieties and
shines, free of any symptoms. At the same time, immersing into Wonderland
detaches her even more from reality. She begins having visions of
characters from the story, and interacts with them as Alice.
Matters are not helped by the fact her mother has been, incidentally,
working on a book about Alice in Wonderland. Phoebe may feel that her
mother is paying more attention to that than to her. This, at least, is
what her mother suspects and anguishes over, among many other doubts and
regrets of a parent whose child is "different." This subject, so common in
movies reviewed on Young Actress Reviews, doesn't come across stale due to
the excellent performances of the parents, and because Elle is riveting.
 In the theatre with drama teacher Miss Dodger
Phoebe's mother is a high-strung person and takes all the initiative
regarding Phoebe. Her father, calm and pleasant, focuses more on his work,
and has trouble understanding Phoebe's behavior. "We can all choose not to
do things that hurt other people and ourselves," he tells Phoebe,
immediately after which his peeling knife slips, and he hurts himself.
Other notably good acting is seen with the drama teacher Miss Dodger, who
makes a very distinctive character, a bridge between the rule-heavy world
of the grown-ups, the world of children, and Phoebe's visions. Bailee is
effective in her small role as the little sister who is tired of taking
care of her strange sister, and asks her mother for a replacement sister.
But what really matters is that without doubt this is Elle's movie, her
biggest, most demanding, and thus far her best role by far. Finally Elle
gets to show off the full range of her acting skills, and she excels. This
will end the talk of Elle riding only on her big sister's fame. That
sentiment is shared by many other reviewers, such as Jeanne
Kaplan, who after seeing this film, groups Elle with the likes of Anna Paquin and
Tatum O'Neal.
And so it's all the more upsetting that substandard DVD mastering has
destroyed most of the apparently high production values. Although purchased
from Amazon, the quality of my DVD seems more like a pirated cam copy. I
hope this is an aberration and I'll one day get my hands on a higher
quality copy – very preferably a Blu-ray, the lack of which is an insult
to Elle.
 Held by mother Most aspects of this film are grimly realistic, especially the theme of
Phoebe's parents struggling with their helplessness, denial, and
self-accusations about the causes of Phoebe's illness. Elle's visions of
the Wonderland characters are shown as being real for her, projected
against the backdrop of reality. Between these extremes, the air of Miss
Dodger's theatre, and that of the drama teacher herself, is a touch
magical. The different styles make up a seamless whole.
Among the children of the play is a boy who wants, and is given, the role
of the Queen of Hearts. He becomes Phoebe's best friend, being another
"different." The message that behaving unlike others doesn't make you worse
is a fine one, but didn't need to be so heavily underlined in this story.
Generally, though, I felt respected rather than preached to by the writer.
In particular, the complex and sometimes confusing parallels with Phoebe's
and Alice's life are far from obvious.
 Phoebe in her Alice costume The examination of the mental illness is serious, perhaps to the extent of
stepping on the toes of the drama, and definitely to the extent of causing
discomfort in the audience. It's upsetting to watch a little girl unable to
stop physically hurting herself, and all the more so when she's darling
Elle, who we have learned to care for over the years. I had to repeatedly
tell myself it's just a movie. Even then, I was affected long after the
movie. One scene in particular – where Phoebe cries in her mother's
embrace, saying she's sorry she's hurting herself, and that she wants her
mother to know why she can't help doing it – is heart wrenching. It was
possibly the most emotionally intense scene I've ever seen.
But then there is also the happy Phoebe, and those big, delightfully
contagious smiles of Elle's, and many other wonderful sides of her, and
that's what will stay with me most from Phoebe in Wonderland.
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Elle Fanning
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![[bio]](/images/common/biography.png "More about Elle"){kind=small}
