SusannahALICE IN WONDERLAND (2010)
March 18th 2010 06:38
ALICE IN WONDERLAND (2010)
Starring: Johnny Depp, Mia Wasikowska, Helena Bonham Carter, Anne Hathaway, Crispin Glover.
Directed by: Tim Burton
Tim Burton’s Alice in Wonderland is not his best film, but neither is it his worst. Rather than a film adaptation of Lewis Carroll’s books, Alice in Wonderland, and Through the Looking-Glass, this film is a sort of sequel to those books, chronicling what happens to Alice (Mia Wasikowska) after she returns to Wonderland (or Underland as they refer to it in the film) as a young adult.
The fault lies not with the decision to set the film after the original novels, but with the bog-standard plot they chose for the story. It turns out that since Alice has been gone, The Red Queen (Helena Bonham Carter), or Queen of Hearts, has become a fascist dictator of Underland, and rules by creating fear. Her chief instrument is the Jabberwock; a dragon-like creature that originally featured in Carroll’s nonsense poem “Jabberwocky” in Through the Looking-Glass And What Alice Found There. The Red Queen uses the Jabberwock to strike fear into her subjects. It can only be slain by the chosen one who must wield the special sword called the vorpal blade. And, you guessed it! The chosen one is Alice. So we get the tried and true formula plot of a young girl who discovers herself, and her independence and inner strength, by being the prophesised chosen one who slays the evil that prevents the people of the land from being free.
Ordinarily that would not be so bad, only that is all the plot does. This Alice in Wonderland is extremely plot-driven. Everything is in service to the plot. Normally, that would be a good thing. But this is Alice in Wonderland, the original surreal, nonsensical, fantastical story. If anything is crying out for character scenes and of scenes of pure fun, then this is it. Unfortunately, these are in short supply. The character of Alice is also hampered by not remembering anything that had gone on the first time she came to Wonderland, and has to tell herself repeatedly, for the first hour of the film, how she will wake up because it is all a dream. She is not plucky or spunky, and only very gradually becomes so.
However, all the acting is good; Mia Wasikowska makes a fine Alice; Johnny Depp is in fine form as The Mad Hatter; Crispsin Glover gives good creepy as Stayne – Knave of Hearts to The Red Queen; both Anne Hathaway and Helena Bonham Carter give good turns as the White and Red Queens respectively. Hathaway flutters around ethereally, with dark undertones to her character, while Bonham Carter is all self-righteous arrogance and short-tempered petulance. She even becomes sympathetic over the course of the film. Excellent voice work is supplied by Stephen Fry, Michael Sheen, and Alan Rickman. Christopher Lee even drops by to say one line as the Jabberwock. But all the good acting turns are wasted on the so-so plot. Everyone’s hands are tied by the mediocre story. Even Johnny Depp seems wasted as the Mad Hatter. The chosen one plot also sees the film lose any potential tension it may have had in the third act. Since Alice’s victory is foretold, then we don’t need to worry about whether or not she will succeed. It is just a matter of sitting back and letting events unfold.
The film also wastes any opportunity to create an allegory between the fascist society of the film, and any current political situations today. The Red Queen is creating rule by fear, yet her sister, The White Queen, appears to live unrestricted and free to do as she pleases, with her own army, in her own white castle. So the Red Queen does not quite exert totalitarian rule it seems. Furthermore, The White Queen appears to have sinister undertones. She is, after-all, from the same family as her sister, and has chosen to study dominion over dead things. The film could establish that getting rid of one dictator means simply replacing them with another who is just as bad, but whose methods of maintaining totalitarian rule are different. Instead it wimps out of that, and everything is well at the end in Underland under The White Queen.
Visually the film looks, appropriately, wonderful. The effects are great and the CGI characters such as the Dormouse Cat and March Hare are excellent; the shrinking and growing of Alice is very well done. Alice also manages to rock an amazing assortment of haute couture frocks on her journey through Wonderland. The Cheshire Cat is a delight, and really does look like he has fur. So the world of the books really has been brought to life. It is just a shame the story does live up to the visuals.
Starring: Johnny Depp, Mia Wasikowska, Helena Bonham Carter, Anne Hathaway, Crispin Glover.
Directed by: Tim Burton
Tim Burton’s Alice in Wonderland is not his best film, but neither is it his worst. Rather than a film adaptation of Lewis Carroll’s books, Alice in Wonderland, and Through the Looking-Glass, this film is a sort of sequel to those books, chronicling what happens to Alice (Mia Wasikowska) after she returns to Wonderland (or Underland as they refer to it in the film) as a young adult.
The fault lies not with the decision to set the film after the original novels, but with the bog-standard plot they chose for the story. It turns out that since Alice has been gone, The Red Queen (Helena Bonham Carter), or Queen of Hearts, has become a fascist dictator of Underland, and rules by creating fear. Her chief instrument is the Jabberwock; a dragon-like creature that originally featured in Carroll’s nonsense poem “Jabberwocky” in Through the Looking-Glass And What Alice Found There. The Red Queen uses the Jabberwock to strike fear into her subjects. It can only be slain by the chosen one who must wield the special sword called the vorpal blade. And, you guessed it! The chosen one is Alice. So we get the tried and true formula plot of a young girl who discovers herself, and her independence and inner strength, by being the prophesised chosen one who slays the evil that prevents the people of the land from being free.
Ordinarily that would not be so bad, only that is all the plot does. This Alice in Wonderland is extremely plot-driven. Everything is in service to the plot. Normally, that would be a good thing. But this is Alice in Wonderland, the original surreal, nonsensical, fantastical story. If anything is crying out for character scenes and of scenes of pure fun, then this is it. Unfortunately, these are in short supply. The character of Alice is also hampered by not remembering anything that had gone on the first time she came to Wonderland, and has to tell herself repeatedly, for the first hour of the film, how she will wake up because it is all a dream. She is not plucky or spunky, and only very gradually becomes so.
However, all the acting is good; Mia Wasikowska makes a fine Alice; Johnny Depp is in fine form as The Mad Hatter; Crispsin Glover gives good creepy as Stayne – Knave of Hearts to The Red Queen; both Anne Hathaway and Helena Bonham Carter give good turns as the White and Red Queens respectively. Hathaway flutters around ethereally, with dark undertones to her character, while Bonham Carter is all self-righteous arrogance and short-tempered petulance. She even becomes sympathetic over the course of the film. Excellent voice work is supplied by Stephen Fry, Michael Sheen, and Alan Rickman. Christopher Lee even drops by to say one line as the Jabberwock. But all the good acting turns are wasted on the so-so plot. Everyone’s hands are tied by the mediocre story. Even Johnny Depp seems wasted as the Mad Hatter. The chosen one plot also sees the film lose any potential tension it may have had in the third act. Since Alice’s victory is foretold, then we don’t need to worry about whether or not she will succeed. It is just a matter of sitting back and letting events unfold.
The film also wastes any opportunity to create an allegory between the fascist society of the film, and any current political situations today. The Red Queen is creating rule by fear, yet her sister, The White Queen, appears to live unrestricted and free to do as she pleases, with her own army, in her own white castle. So the Red Queen does not quite exert totalitarian rule it seems. Furthermore, The White Queen appears to have sinister undertones. She is, after-all, from the same family as her sister, and has chosen to study dominion over dead things. The film could establish that getting rid of one dictator means simply replacing them with another who is just as bad, but whose methods of maintaining totalitarian rule are different. Instead it wimps out of that, and everything is well at the end in Underland under The White Queen.
Visually the film looks, appropriately, wonderful. The effects are great and the CGI characters such as the Dormouse Cat and March Hare are excellent; the shrinking and growing of Alice is very well done. Alice also manages to rock an amazing assortment of haute couture frocks on her journey through Wonderland. The Cheshire Cat is a delight, and really does look like he has fur. So the world of the books really has been brought to life. It is just a shame the story does live up to the visuals.
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