Phoebe in Wonderland (2008) Poster

Parents Guide

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Certification

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MPAA Rated PG-13 for thematic material and brief strong language
Certification

Sex & Nudity

  • A boy is called a sexual slur after the other students believe him to be gay (see "Profanity"). There is no sex or nudity in the film, although there is some talk of pregnancy (non-explicit).

Violence & Gore

  • A child is (falsely) accused of killing the class pet, a hamster. Other children chant this at her; she retaliates by spitting at them.
  • A child jokingly quips that the "Good Job Jennie" fictional school role model deserves a slow and painful death.
  • A little girl gets upset while playing a game of tag. She seems to be having a social problem, and gets terrified when being chased. When she's told she's "it" she becomes very upset and spits in another girl's face.
  • Throughout the film the title character shows severe signs of OCD and tourette's syndrome. She is seen with red marks and blisters on her hands, owing to her needing to wash her hands a certain number of times.
  • The title character has bloody hands and arms. When her parents ask her what happened She says it's so she "can be in the play".
  • The title character jumps on a staircase and continuously falls on her knees because she believes that if she doesn't keep her "toes pointed out" she'll be fired. Her knees and legs get badly bloodied and bruised.
  • The girl's severe OCD leads her to harm herself. At one point she breaks down sobbing, telling her mother that she doesn't know why she did it. Her mother refuses to get her help.
  • Also the main character jumps off a high catwalk, misinterpreting her teacher's words to "jump" as an instruction to jump from a high place.

Profanity

  • Some milder name-calling and rude remarks, including "fat", "weird" and crazy" used as insults.
  • One use of the "fuck".
  • One use of "shit".
  • One use of "jackass".
  • One use of "goddamn".
  • Multiple uses of "faggot" and "fag."

Alcohol, Drugs & Smoking

  • A psychiatrist discusses medicating Phoebe; her mother is against giving her daughter pills.
  • In an "Alice in Wonderland" themed vision, the main character sees some people smoking from a hookah.

Frightening & Intense Scenes

  • Multiple scenes of bullying, including characters chasing a distraught girl, talk of destroying a doll, children calling another child "crazy", children calling a boy a "faggot", and some milder name-calling.
  • Phoebe's self-harm behaviour can be quite disturbing; it upsets her to the point where she cries at home often. It also causes tension in the marriage; the father makes a rude, off-hand remark about not wanting a third child in case it ends up like Phoebe.
  • Phoebe suffers from hallucinations, all "Alice in Wonderland" themed. The film is ambiguous about whether this is mental illness, or simply her imagination; in any case, it can sometimes be confusing and upsetting.
  • A beloved teacher loses her job; Phoebe is upset by this.
  • The film features a controversial subject matter (struggling with parenting a mentally ill child) that may frighten and confuse younger viewers.
  • Phoebe sees a vision of a young girl who looks like Alice from the "Alice in Wonderland" stories, and is prompted to jump off the catwalk of the stage at school. The screen goes black and a thud is heard. This may upset some viewers.

See also

Taglines | Plot Summary | Synopsis | Plot Keywords


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