Phoebe In Wonderland (2009/Image Entertainment DVD)

 

Picture: C+     Sound: C+     Extras: D     Film: D

 

 

Daniel Barnz’s Phoebe In Wonderland (2009) is yet another child-lead fantasy genre story among what is now a few hundred that once again is substandard, flat, dull, tired, unoriginal and in this case, obnoxious and repetitive with Elle Fanning chewing up so much scenery that if she were a cow, an entire field of grass would be so stripped, you would think you were watching a post-apocalyptic film.

 

She is a troubled school child with personal issues who is always complaining about something and remarkably, there are no adults to help her, talk to her (versus at her) and none of them manage to strike her for being so petulant and disagreeable.  Part of it is that these are cardboard characters we never believe, so in part, none of the adults are real adults to have any reaction to at all despite Felicity Huffman, Patricia Clarkson and Bill Pullman here to give good performances.

 

This is just so bad that I was constantly amazed that it had any redeeming value, but Fanning’s performance is especially shrill and obnoxious in the worst ways.  It is almost as if it was a sick joke, she is so bad and so badly written, but one has to blame her to some extent despite it being mostly Barnz’s fault.  The use of Alice In Wonderland is lame and all in all, this has little point.

 

The anamorphically enhanced 2.35 X 1 image is soft and the digital effects often look better than the film footage, which is always a sign of a bad shoot and/or transfer.  Color is also substandard and this is unimpressive overall.  The Dolby Digital 5.1 is not great, too quiet and the Dolby 2.0 version is only a little worse.  Don’t expect much from the sound either, even in the fantasy scenes.  The only extra is a trailer.

 

 

-   Nicholas Sheffo