Elle Fanning in Film Drama On Being Different
Phoebe in Wonderland is a Thoughtful, Moving Story of Alienation
This 2008 film features an outstanding ensemble cast led by the amazing Elle Fanning (The Curious Case of Benjamin Button). As Phoebe, she gives big sister Dakota a run for top honors as Best Actress in a Single Family.
Academy Award Winner Felicity Huffman Plays Fanning's Mom
Fanning’s co-stars include Oscar winner Felicity Huffman (Transamerica, Desperate Housewives) and Bill Pullman (While You Were Sleeping, Independence Day) as Phoebe’s parents, and the luminous Patricia Clarkson (Pieces of April, Six Feet Under) as Phoebe’s eccentric but wise grade school drama teacher, Miss Dodger.
But as good as Clarkson is here, this is Elle Fanning’s movie. As Phoebe, she’s winsome and winning, but with a whimsical fantasy life that eventually turns melancholy and sometimes frightening.
We meet Phoebe as she enters grade school. Phoebe is the spunky, independent girl who chafes against rules – the outsider seemingly too imaginative for the other kids to appreciate.
Patricia Clarkson as Risk-Encouraging Teacher
Inspired by a performance of Swan Lake, Phoebe hesitates mightily before signing up to audition for a school production of Alice in Wonderland. She blows the tryout, but Miss Dodger gives her a second chance with the instantly meaningful invitation, “Go on. Jump.” The phrase completely defines the artful Miss Dodger as someone who respects only those willing to take risks.
Of course, Phoebe, a natural, instinctive actress, inevitably lands the lead.
Early in the film, she seems like a fairly typical kid. But soon, we sense something is amiss. Other kids begin to mock her.
Is she simply acting out, or is something more serious going on? In the first act, writer-director Daniel Barnz does a nice job of not showing his cards.
Gay Theme Daring For Grade School Drama
Phoebe’s fey classmate Jamie (Ian Coletti) has a different kind of otherness. He sets his sights on the role of the Red Queen in Wonderland. The implication of his sexual orientation (even at age nine) is clear, and like Phoebe he is ostracized by classmates, which actually strengthens the bond between the two children. It’s a sweet friendship, one that develops slowly but with affection and mutual compassion.
Eventually, it’s suggested that Phoebe has obsessive compulsive disorder; her frequent finger-drumming and other repetitive behaviors seem to bear this out. But when she slips into fantasy conversations with characters from Wonderland, played by the key people in Phoebe’s real life, the O.C.D. diagnosis seems shaky. Only near the end do we learn of Phoebe’s real issue.
Meantime, Phoebe’s well-meaning parents and big sister struggle with the younger daughter’s increasing oddness. There’s also the weak, muddle-headed, insufferably P.C. principal (played by Campbell Scott) whose specialty is bad decisions regarding Phoebe and her beloved drama teacher, Miss Dodger.
Clarkson Has Pivotal Scene
And it is Miss Dodger who gets the best speech in the film. In a quiet but pivotal scene in the school auditorium’s shadowed rafters, Phoebe explains to her teacher that she can’t control her odd behaviors.
Responding with quiet force, Miss Dodger says, “I want to tell you something which may not make any sense. But I should say it, just so that one day you might remember it and maybe it will make you feel better.
“At a certain point in your life, probably when too much of it has gone by, you will open your eyes and see yourself for who you are. Especially for everything that made you so different from all the other ‘awful’ normals. And you will say to yourself, ‘But I am this person.’ And in that statement, that correction, there will be a kind of love.”
What child doesn’t yearn for the kind of loving advice and reflection Phoebe receives from an understanding adult like Miss Dodger?
Phoebe in Wonderland’s message – that different doesn’t mean lesser – is a familiar one. But the movie delivers it with grace and humor, in a quietly effective style.
The film is a promising feature debut for writer/director Daniel Barnz. The DVD from Image Entertainment is spare, including just the feature and a trailer. It is available June 23, 2009, with a retail price of $27.98.
E. Fanning, F. Huffman in Phoebe in Wonderland
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