she's too old, at 34, to play esther greenwood, who is just out of high school in the novel, at 19 years old. dakota fanning is 22, much more in the ballpark. plus dakota did an excellent job of playing a depressive in the runaways. i think she'll be really good in this role, and i look forward to seeing how kirsten does behind the camera too! all that said, given that the bell jar is, essentially, a roman a clef of plath's life i do think kirsten looks more like sylvia. but the book is about esther, so dakota should pull it off.