Phoebe in Wonderland 2008

Ben Lyons, At the Movies: I thought this was delightful, a little depressing at times but with three stellar performances from Fanning, Huffman, and Patricia Clarkson. Read more

Michael O'Sullivan, Washington Post: Elle Fanning, and her audience, deserve better. Read more

Stephen Holden, New York Times: It leaves you frustrated and annoyed. Read more

Joe Morgenstern, Wall Street Journal: It's that kind of movie, full of therapeutic notions paraded as poetry and scenes that seem to carry explanatory labels. Read more

Moira MacDonald, Seattle Times: The screenplay is unusual in its reliance on children for many of the scenes, and its understanding of the drama in the heart of a troubled 9-year-old. Read more

Noel Murray, AV Club: For all its cop-outs, Phoebe still trumps the 'how to be a better person' hoo-hah of so many middlebrow dramas, if only because the problems it depicts are real, not overcooked reactions to trumped-up traumas. Read more

Ty Burr, Boston Globe: 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. Read more

Peter Rainer, Christian Science Monitor: There's a lot more perspiration than inspiration. Read more

Owen Gleiberman, Entertainment Weekly: 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. Read more

Amy Nicholson, I.E. Weekly: 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 Read more

Christy Lemire, Associated Press: 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. Read more

Carrie Rickey, Philadelphia Inquirer: Barnz has made a poignant family movie that, despite its thematic material and brief profanity, is appropriate for mature 10-year-olds and older. Read more

Peter Travers, Rolling Stone: Let Clarkson and Fanning take you to the rabbit hole of seductive enchantment that defines this movie. Read more

Mick LaSalle, San Francisco Chronicle: It's a rare thing when a labor of love turns out to be worth both the labor and the love. Read more

Dana Stevens, Slate: [Elle Fanning is] an astonishingly natural and unmannered actress who carries this rather ungainly movie on her narrow shoulders. Read more

Alison Willmore, Time Out: 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. Read more

Claudia Puig, USA Today: An uneven, unfocused amalgamation of ideas and moods that is at times deeply moving nonetheless. Read more

Ronnie Scheib, Variety: Barnz arbitrarily posits a nonsensical series of school "rules" to embody conformity, while imagination is repped by Tourette syndrome. Read more

Robert Wilonsky, Village Voice: 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. Read more