Phoebe in Wonderland

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Whether at home or at school, 9-year-old Phoebe (Elle Fanning) always seems to get in trouble for breaking the rules. When her drama teacher (Patricia Clarkson) casts her in a production of "Alice in Wonderland," Phoebe begins to receive personal advice from the play's characters. Felicity Huffman, Bill Pullman and Campbell Scott also star in this fantastical tale about inspiration and overcoming adversity.
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Netflix Rating: 3.6
Rotten Tomatoes: Rotten 59%: Consensus: Blessed with a good cast, Phoebe's heart is in the right place, but its execution is dicey.
Fresh: 29 Rotten: 20 Rotten Tomatoes page
Top Rotten Tomatoes Critics: It needs the power of imagination to be done effectively and I just didn't think it was here. full review

Ben Mankiewicz, At the Movies

I thought this was delightful, a little depressing at times but with three stellar performances from Fanning, Huffman, and Patricia Clarkson. full review

Ben Lyons, At the Movies

[Elle Fanning is] an astonishingly natural and unmannered actress who carries this rather ungainly movie on her narrow shoulders. full review

Dana Stevens, Slate

Barnz has made a poignant family movie that, despite its thematic material and brief profanity, is appropriate for mature 10-year-olds and older. full review

Carrie Rickey, Philadelphia Inquirer

Let Clarkson and Fanning take you to the rabbit hole of seductive enchantment that defines this movie. full review

Peter Travers, Rolling Stone

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. full review

Christy Lemire, Associated Press

It's a rare thing when a labor of love turns out to be worth both the labor and the love. full review

Mick LaSalle, San Francisco Chronicle

It leaves you frustrated and annoyed. full review

Stephen Holden, New York Times

An uneven, unfocused amalgamation of ideas and moods that is at times deeply moving nonetheless. full review

Claudia Puig, USA Today

It's that kind of movie, full of therapeutic notions paraded as poetry and scenes that seem to carry explanatory labels. full review

Joe Morgenstern, Wall Street Journal

Elle Fanning, and her audience, deserve better. full review

Michael O'Sullivan, Washington Post

Phoebe in Wonderland gradually loses its grip on tone and believability, climaxing with a show-must-go-on moment that's just plain silly. Thankfully, Barnz knows exactly where to end his film: on the face of a girl, and an actress, at the crossroads. full review

Ty Burr, Boston Globe

Phoebe appears to have obsessive-compulsive disorder (or something), but Phoebe in Wonderland is so intent on celebrating her as 'special' that it quirks up the trauma of her issues. full review

Owen Gleiberman, Entertainment Weekly

The performances are transcendent -- especially Fanning's, as the little girl who wants to get better, who wants to be better, as she slowly disappears through the Looking Glass. full review

Robert Wilonsky, Village Voice

Barnz arbitrarily posits a nonsensical series of school "rules" to embody conformity, while imagination is repped by Tourette syndrome. full review

Ronnie Scheib, Variety

The mesmerizing performance of [Elle] Fanning as the gifted and troubled young Phoebe sparks the picture.

Duane Byrge, Hollywood Reporter