This coming of age drama develops along two eventually divergent stories consisting of a naïve, innocent daughter and her mother who doted and protected and isolated her from the world. From the beginning light and entertaining, the film slowly transforms into a darker, sometimes surrealistic adventure that borders on horror. There are lighter tonalities from Alice in Wonderland (1951) the animation classic, Pieces of April (2003) about a clueless young woman who invites her dysfunctional family to dinner and her horrible efforts to make dinner and Amelie (2001) about a shy young woman who comes of age through her spreading joy to others instead of an inner journey in the outside world as in Fellini. Yet, this movie starkly diverges in mood and feeling with its darker nature that has elements from Eyes Wide Shut (1999) Stanley Kubrick's classy look into the phantasmagorical world of the elite dark orgy of fetishes. Closer still, but less ambitious, is Fellini's suggestive flourishes with a movie such as Steppenwolf (1974) based on Hermann Hesse's magical, surrealistic mind-blowing novel about an strange, introverted aging man who discovers his duel inner nature. The clash of affect or emotional resonance between the mother's evolving story and her daughter's adventure seems to create an uncomfortable and seemingly tear at the fabric of the movie itself. Perhaps a more pleasant individual journey on film might be Under the Tuscan Sun (2003) with Diane Lane who plays a middle age American woman who comes of age in a foreign country.