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Rudner also plays one of the leading characters in the ensemble. The setting is an English country manor, where Peter (Stephen Fry) has invited his college pals and their significant others for a weekend reunion after ten years’ time. He has recently inherited the manor house and revels in playing host to his friends. They are a theatrical lot and their individual personalities don’t take long to identify.

Emma Thompson, for instance, is a lonely woman with low self-esteem who has put snapshots of herself around her home so the cat won’t be upset during her absence. Hugh Laurie and Imelda Staunton have lost a child, so they are paranoid about their new baby’s well-being at every waking moment. Alphonsia Emmanuel plays a woman with a huge (and indiscriminate) sexual appetite, and Tony Slattery plays a married man who is her latest lover. Kenneth Branagh (who also directed the film) plays a sharp-tongued writer who once dreamed of greatness but settled for success in television. And Rita Rudner plays his wife, a pampered Hollywood TV star who isn’t used to deprivation—like not having a television set.

Although the general tone of the movie is light, there is a serious undercurrent, as all the characters deal with mortality, some more directly than others. (One aspect of the story threatens to make the film a period piece, but certainly bespeaks a major concern of its time.)

It’s also interesting to look back at the movie’s leading players at this point in their lives. Branagh had come onto the world stage just three years earlier with his stunning Henry V, while his then-wife Emma Thompson was still a budding star (except in the UK, where she had already headlined her own popular TV show). That’s her mother, Phyllida Law, playing the straight-faced housekeeper.

Stephen Fry and Hugh Laurie were making names for themselves, primarily on television, where they were starring in the delightful series Jeeves and Wooster. Their sketch show, A Bit of Fry and Laurie, and other successes would follow. Imelda Staunton was busy building her reputation on stage, screen, and television, soon to become one of England’s leading actresses (and, in 2005, an Oscar nominee for Vera Drake).

Rita Rudner never had the screenwriting career this film seemed to promise. She and Bergman wrote another ensemble piece, A Weekend in the Country, which he directed, but it didn’t get the same attention as Peter’s Friends. She has continued performing and is a fixture in Las Vegas. (She’s also penned some very funny books, including two novels.) Perhaps someday, if we’re lucky, she’ll write another movie.

106. PHOEBE IN WONDERLAND

(2008)

Directed by Daniel Barnz

Screenplay by Daniel Barnz

Actors:

ELLE FANNING

FELICITY HUFFMAN

PATRICIA CLARKSON

BILL PULLMAN

CAMPBELL SCOTT

IAN COLLETTI

PETER GERETY

MADDIE CORMAN

MACKENZIE MILONE

AUSTIN WILLIAMS

TEALA DUNN

BAILEE MADISON

MAX BAKER

MADHUR JAFFREY

For some filmmakers, a screening at the Sundance Film Festival is a prize in itself. For others, it opens the door and offers promise but doesn’t guarantee success. First-time director (and writer) Daniel Barnz was nominated for the Grand Jury Prize in 2008 for Phoebe in Wonderland, but struggled to find a distributor for the movie, which received only a desultory release in theaters before going to DVD.

The movie has its flaws, but it offers a rich, emotional experience and exceptional performances. A film that good shouldn’t go begging for an audience.

Nine-year-old Elle Fanning plays the title role. Phoebe is an unusual child by any standards, smart beyond her years yet often combative with her sister and even her schoolmates. Her mother (Felicity Huffman) worries that she isn’t doing a good enough job of juggling parenthood and her work on a thesis about Lewis Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland. Her husband (Bill Pullman) thinks she stresses out too much. Meanwhile, Phoebe retreats into the world of her imagination.

Then a flamboyant new drama teacher (Patricia