Kirpianuscus a charming puzzle. high performances. and admirable work of Elle Fanning. a film who remands the colors of childhood and, in same measure, the status of contemporary family. a film about refuges and the need of the other. fresh, amusing, melancholic, honest. about a girl and her strange world. about a teacher who gives more than inspiration. about a mother looking her role in her life. profound pledge for old fashion values, it is an open window to a magnificent definition of small things. and that fact does it special. because it is a trip in the heart of things with profound delicacy. a film about the sense of things. as child. as adult. as part of the others existence.

WakenPayne Independent film, they have been most known to be releasing things that are considered to be crap. However I am a huge supporter of indie film because there can be some great gems in the mix. This is one of them.The plot of this movie is that a 9 year old girl named Phoebe is something of a child prodigy. However lately she has been acting strangely and has behavioral issues at school of which she seems to have little restraint (despite her wanting to). She signs up for a school play adaptation of Alice In Wonderland. The rather odd drama teacher casts her for the leading role. She befriends a boy named Jamie who plays The Queen Of Hearts. As time goes on she becomes more attached to Wonderland, blurs the lines of fantasy and reality as well as dealing with a mental illness.The acting is phenomenal from everybody. I never knew Elle Fanning could act let alone act this well. She acted and felt like an outcast child with mental problems. Everybody else does a good job as well but at the end of the day it is Fanning's show and she carries the movie well.So to keep this review short, if you like the sort of drama film that involves anything about what I said above, then I think you should go see it. Previous reviews have said that the mental illness explanation wasn't very well done and reading about Tourette syndrome right now, it is. However if you can look past that for the final 5 minutes of the film (when they gave the mental illness a name) then this is definitely worth a look.

dbh850 Acting, directing, costumes, cinematography all splendid. Elle Fanning is a brilliant actress - such a delight to watch. Everyone was marvelous.The film is artistic, passionate, compassionate, REAL, heartfelt, intelligent, insightful... it skillfully brings the viewer into the life of a family struggling with a difficult and baffling problem. Why does a person in a loving family behave in ways that cause problems? Just STOP DOING IT. That's how it feels - the family members, school, and the person with the problem ALL want to know what the heck is going on. The film does a beautiful job showing this.I'm baffled to see all this talk about - and in the filmmaker's description apparently, Tourette's syndrome but not OCD. Absolutely baffled. Did the screenwriter not know he was creating a character with a pretty bad case of OCD? I'm completely flummoxed by this.In fact, the most obviously evident symptoms, very early in the film, were those of obsessive-compulsive disorder. I think the film did a SPLENDID job of showing the torments of OCD. It's an anxiety disorder that can be crippling. So many of her behaviors were textbook OCD. The things she had to do to be sure she got into the play - or to protect herself from bad things happening, the excessive hand washing. I don't know what was up with her knees - I must have missed that.The Tourette's was less prevalent in the film. It caused problems, that's for sure. But OCD is more prevalent in the film - it's the symptom we see the most of. Spitting is uncommon with Tourette's - thank goodness. And swearing is uncommon, as well, although people often thing that's the only symptom. Tics are small motor movements and sounds such as throat clearing, sniffing, coughing etc. are quite common. It's common to see blinking, shrugging, grimacing or mouth opening, kicking...I've been asked if I thought she was psychotic. If she literally was seeing and hearing those characters, then yes, there was a psychotic disorder. But psychosis is so rare in young children. She's so young - and I don't know if the filmmaker was depicting her fertile imagination, so it's impossible to say. Psychosis is not a symptom of Tourette's syndrome or obsessive-compulsive disorder. I love to see films that depict these sorts of problems and show the full complexity of the PERSON. I loved how the mother was angry at the doctor and refused to accept it. I loved how she accused him of not really caring, of wanting to just shove her daughter into a diagnostic box and medicate her instead of really being helpful. I loved that because I've sat in a room with that very same mom a number of times. A mom with ENORMOUS love and concern for her child - Felicity Huffman was brilliant. Bill Pullman was brilliant, as usual. Bailee Madison gave us a perfect little sister - a tough spot for a child to be in.Love the film. Is shows a REAL family with REAL struggles. It shows REAL parents trying to weave their way through the difficult and confusing waters of a troubled child. It shows a REAL child who doesn't understand what the hell is going on and is frustrated because she doesn't know how to articulate what she's experiencing.I don't hate the shrink; I often do in films. He's okay. Not great, but not horrible. I'm accustomed to shrinks in films being idiots. Or lechers. Ugh. I wasn't all that crazy about him, but he wasn't horrible. The way he handled his pad and pen... c'mon! You don't do that! It's a splendid way to SHUT IT DOWN. If that was the filmmaker's goal, it was spot-on. A sort of averageish… or maybe a bit less than average - shrink. Good job with that.The high school principal was an idiot. I hope there isn't ONE like that in the world. Probably is. Sigh...This film is wonderful. I strongly recommend it to anyone... it should be shown in schools. It should be shown in homes. It should be shown in churches. It shows REAL people - parents with their own personal struggles and disappointments dealing with a difficult child and staying together, loving each other, accepting all their flaws and CHOOSING LOVE - choosing to stay together and live each day together - through struggles and through happy times. It is REAL.

trackie02rock I had not seen, nor heard of this film prior to a recommendation from Netflix. As a fan of works that bridge reality and imagination, I had high hopes, and was not disappointed. The characters feel honest and accurate. The acting is solid across children and adults, leading and supporting roles. Fanning and Clarkson are particularly brilliant, while Ian Colletti is surprisingly strong in a challenging role for a young boy. The directing style and camera movement effectively conveys the roller coaster of emotions and perceptions young Phoebe has, without overpowering subtleties in the acting. The music is perfectly in sync, a rarity in independent films today. Most importantly, the heart of the story captured me immediately and completely.There were, however, some flaws which keep this from achieving perfection. The first being Felicity Huffman's hair. It is clearly a wig and has an unnatural look about it. It looks like one used for the "cancer patient" on a medical drama. That should have been fixed. The next being slips in pace. 95% of the film is at Phoebe's pace. She is our hero, she moves the story. That works great. In the few scenes between just Pullman and Huffman, however, the pace slows, creating an awkward hiccup. Minor changes, maybe just in editing, could have solved this.Finally, and most detrimental, is the "official" diagnosis of Phoebe's condition. The whole film shows her spirit and imagination pitted against her struggles with an affliction. That makes her this special individual, someone we care about. The conclusion, however, gives her this label, a diagnosis. What she has doesn't matter. How she deals with it does. Barnz should have taken a note from Tim Burton's "Big Fish." Burton didn't conclude the journey by forcing Edward Bloom to see the world as everyone else did. His son Will, instead, finally views the world through Edward's eyes. Barnz concluded Phoebe's journey with a simple diagnosis, rather than a profound revelation. Unfortunately, Phoebe's revelation is what I really wanted.While not perfect, it still remains captivating, moving and enchanting. This story, under the direction of Tim Burton, Spike Jonez or Barry Sonnenfeld (see Pushing Daisies), may have been perfected. Under Bo Welch or Chris Weitz, it could have been forgettable. While Barnz lacks experience, the story is close to his heart, and that's what shines through. It's not perfect, but it's pretty close.