Wonderwell

The production quality of the film is excellent, which gives the expectation for a good film, especially if intrigued by the trailer.

However, the film is just plain weird and not in a good way. The story seems to never really start, doesn't really know where it's trying to go and never really arrives anywhere.

I think, emphasis on think, it's trying to be clever as a metaphorical coming of age warning about sexual exploitation in the fashion industry? But the film doesn't achieve this aim and besides the very start and very end, the fantasy aspect is effectively irrelevant.

If aimed for children/young teens, it seems inappropriately overly sexual with a cast of all young minors and if aimed at adults it's just fundamentally built for the wrong audience with the irrelevant fantasy tale - which by the way makes no sense and I have no clue what happened, something about a key getting passed between witch sisters?!?

My wife wrapped after about 30 mins in, I committed to give it a chance but it never took off and then just ended, whilst simultaneously being weirdly inappropriate for the nature of film.

Don't recommend, even for intrigue.

I gave it 4 stars because it's stunningly beautiful, if that's what matters, I could have given a 10...but that's it!... And it's not even a merit of the movie itself, but of the production scouting that chose the location in Rome and Tuscany.

The movie jumps from confusing to inappropriate, I'm not a prude, but it made me feel uncomfortable many times.

There's one line where metaphors are named, and I was during the whole movie trying to find the metaphors in order to make sense, unfortunately I couldn't.

Maybe I'm dumb, or maybe the movie was.

One thing for sure, is that the movie drags, it's boring and pointless.

I wanted to love it so much, because of Carrie Fisher. But to be honest, the movie is a beautiful mess.

Had I not paid to rent this movie I would have been out after 15 minutes. I finished it hoping it would redeem itself, it did not. Weird sexual images and references. Definitely not family friendly. Frankly, I'd be a little nervous about these film makers working with young girls again. The story had no obvious theme. The acting was not very good, but that could be because the characters had no relatable qualities. Their motivations were unclear and I just couldn't buy into any of them; except maybe the kid Daniella. I don't know how they got funding for this movie. It was obviously expensive to make, but what a waste.

It's like Adam Sandler tried to do a Traffic sequel The careless treatment of trauma and female puberty makes me think that Carrie Fisher didn't have the whole script before she signed on. She is the only reason we started the movie at all.

It's confusing, and I feel such compassion for the young actors in this movie. They could have been good, the script, direction and cinematography is what's bad. The dad ends up coming across weirdly creepy, this is in no way a family movie. My kids are mature, this is not appropriate for kids, and I'm not a prude or overly religious or shaming. This was upsetting and gross.

After the credits, I felt an urge to find out more about how Violet's life changed following her trip to Wonderwell. She could embark on new adventures and, generally, it'll be cool if the sequel explains the mythology of the Wonderwell universe, explores the history, origins, and lore of the fantastical elements introduced in the first movie. In Wonderwell, all those are taken for granted but I'm an inquisitive creature, so I'm looking forward to Wonderwell 2!" Hope to see a story about grown-up girl Violet and her adventures through her adult life. Although will be interesting to see grown-up children&parents line.