Entertainment

Is Dakota Fanning Finally A Hollywood Grown-Up?

by Alanna Bennett

The two main characters in Naomi Foner's Very Good Girls are very much still teenagers, but it's a coming-of-age story that might just make its mark as Dakota Fanning's most notable foray yet into the adult world. Starring Fanning and Elizabeth Olsen, the first trailer for Very Good Girls showcases the former at her most mature — and it just might be her chance to finally, permanently break out of the child star mold that's followed her since she was a small child.

Fanning is 20 now, which means that though she's still in the "young adult" bracket to many, she has for all intents and purposes been living as an adult for a while now. For many, though, "Dakota Fanning" is synonymous with child star — those days when she confronted an anthropomorphic cat with Spencer Breslin in Cat In the Hat or took on Manhattan with Brittany Murphy in Uptown Girls. She was prolific, and extremely well-known.

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In 2010 — when she was 16 — Fanning starred as Cherie Currie in The Runaways, which was definitely a step away from The Cat In the Hat. But she also kept in touch with the youth she was associated with, as exemplified with her role in The Twilight Saga.

Very Good Girls follows two best friends (Fanning and Olsen) the summer before college, as they make a pact to lose their virginities. In some ways, it's classic teen fare: A love triangle, friendships very possibly torn asunder by that love triangle, etc. But impressions from the first trailer indicate that more than anything this is a coming-of-age story for Fanning's character — and the most mature performance to date for Fanning herself. It might be jumping the gun to say this without having actually seen the movie itself, but all signs point to this being a breakout performance.

Between this and Night Moves , in which Fanning plays a radical environmentalist opposite Jesse Eisenberg, it seems a safe bet that Fanning's ready to declare herself an adult actress to watch.

Image: MG Film