Given the presence of younger daughter in our home, there was no way we could avoid going to see Tim Burton's version of Alice in Wonderland. I had been noting the reviews in the newspapers and blogs; no one seemed to like it much. Still, I clung on to hope. More than one reviewer hadn't liked Burton's Charlie and the Chocolate Factory either, and I had thought that was rather charming and far closer to the spirit of the original book than the 1971 version.Oh dear. The film looks great, no mistake. The casting is nothing to complain about except for Alice herself; Mia Wasikowska comes across as a paler version of Gwyneth Paltrow --- with less personality. It is rather fun to see Tim Pigott-Smith and Geraldine James (Captain Merrick and Sarah Layton from Jewel in the Crown) as a married titled couple; in this movie, he's a goodie and she's a baddie.
Burton apparently decided to side-step the whole "series of odd happenings" of the books and make a movie about a nearly-grown-up Alice that might just have well been entitled: Alice: Return to Wonderland. It ends up being yet another "innocents against the forces of evil" epic which is what the Alice stories never were. The only references to Lewis Carroll's Alice are flashback scenes with a rather ill-looking six-year-old Alice who inexplicably goes to bed wearing pink lip gloss. Naturally, nineteen-year-old Alice dons armour and fights the Jabberwock herself in a stirring battle scene finale, before returning to the real world, turning down the offer of marriage from the stuck-up prig and embarking upon a life of adventure and commerce. Oh yes, and the Mad Hatter expresses his triumph and Alice her defiance with a techno-dance move....
As I cottoned on that we were in for another mélange of Lord of the Rings/Narnia/The Golden Compass, I soon drifted off. I was awoken by a mother who was one of hostesses of a birthday party of pre-teen girls in our row. She'd been on a popcorn run and needed to softly call to us twice to pass back in to her seat. The Resident Fan Boy and I thought it might not have been obvious that we were snoozing, due to the large 3D glasses, but decided later that our lolling heads and open mouths might have given us away.
Youngest daughter, however, was entranced, so I guess it was worth it.
I'll tell you what I did enjoy, though. There was a very funny column in yesterday's Ottawa Citizen about refusing to get a cell-phone. (Mobiles for you Brits.) I had a wonderful giggle; I don't think I even laughed once during Alice in Wonderland.
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4 comments:
I enjoyed Alice in Wonderland - though I think I would have enjoyed it just as much not in 3D.
The story was a bit lame and slow. The Red Queen reminded me a lot of Miranda Richardson as Queen Elizabeth in Blackadder. And Little Britain's Matt Lucas as Tweedledum and Tweedledee was brilliantly done. I certainly at them.
My understanding is that Tim Burton did not film Alice in 3D, that this was the decision of the studio. I saw Miranda Richardson's Queen Elizabeth in the Red Queen too; I wonder if Miranda Richardson based her Queen Elizabeth on Lewis Carroll's original Red Queen? It makes sense...
I'm glad you enjoyed the film. I'm glad younger daughter enjoyed the film, for that matter. I thought it was rather anachronistic and derivative, but you probably figured that out from my post...
We went yesterday, and I rather liked it. Nice to see Burton's standard cast of Johnny and Helena again, she was very nice as the queen, I was rather disappointed that the Hatter wasn't a little wilder, but then thinking of his Capn' Jack character too much.
haven't seen AiW but thanks for the link to the Ottawa column re refusing cell phone usage. i'm among the minority myself... also thinking of withdrawing from facebook!
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