On an adventure full of laughter and tears, Wendy, played with exquisite delicacy by Dakota Fanning, follows the guiding spirit of Mr. Spock on her journey into the unknown. 'It is there for us to conquer, not to fear.'
You can guess how most of its scenes will play before you even come to them, and it has a circumspect, sanitized quality, as if meant to be shown in group homes without causing undue upset.
A lovely, gentle geek adventure that appreciates the importance of fandom as a source of inspiration and comfort, with a subtle and resolutely unsentimental performance by Dakota Fanning as an autistic fan.
Please Stand By deflates into a perfectly watchable but soft parable in which a can-do young American loses a battle, only to win the war of growing up, while the adults in the room confront their own unhelpful rigidities.
Lewin can't quite transcend the inconsistencies and dwindling credibility of the concept or give the material a driving pulse, even with its race-to-the-deadline setup.
