Alice in Wonderland
Alice in Wonderland is an eccentric animal. Boasting a star-studded cast — excepting Alice herself — and exhibiting director Tim Burton's trademark eccentric visual style, it feels comfortably familiar. Sadly, this is rather to the film's detriment: Burton has built expectations high for his works over the years, and the fact that this film doesn't deliver on them is a disappointment. In spite of this, however, the script and one or two of the performances are very funny, and so I spent much of the running time giggling like a loon.
Burton and screenwriter Linda Woolverton choose to set Alice in Wonderland approximately ten years after Alice's first trip to Wonderland. Alice (Mia Wasikowska) is being groomed for an arranged marriage to an unlikeable toff, and at the moment of truth she runs off chasing the White Rabbit (voice of Martin Sheen). As before, she falls down the rabbit hole, and finds her way into Wonderland where she finds that she is remembered from her previous visit. Firmly believing it is all a dream, she wanders through Wonderland reuniting with her friends including the Mad Hatter (Johnny Depp), the Cheshire Cat (voice of Stephen Fry) and Absolom (voice of Alan Rickman). She soon learns of her true destiny: to end the Red Queen's (Helena Bonham Carter) dark reign by slaying the Jabberwocky and restoring the Red Queen's sister, the White Queen (Anne Hathaway) to her rightful place on the throne.
Some critics have taken issue with the action sequence in the closing act, claiming that it is out of character for the film and doesn't work. I found it to be over implausibly quickly and easily, with Alice emerging victorious sooner than could be reasonably expected, but it fit with the plot as it had unfolded up until that point. It was clear from early on that Alice was going to have to slay the Jabberwocky, and such an event is naturally action-packed.
Many of the performances are enjoyable and solid. Anne Hathaway again excels, portraying the White Queen as an ethereal, slightly empty-headed clutz. She glides about the screen in a way that is both innately elegant and highly comical. Stephen Fry, Alan Rickman, Martin Sheen, Timothy Spall (voicing Bayard the dog) and Barabara Windsor (voicing the Dormouse) all put in excellent vocal performances. Furthermore, these CGI characters are well-presented, with the Cheshire Cat in particular capturing the quintessential mischief of the character.
Johnny Depp put in a competent performance as the Mad Hatter, as might be expected, and brought a surprising amount of emotional depth to the character. However, his screen time was comparatively limited, and in reality his performance was little different from those of his other recent Burton co-ventures such as Sweeney Todd.
Sadly Mia Wasikowska and Helena Bonham Carter were not so good. Wasikowska was mostly competent, lending Alice an other-worldly air, but her delivery was at times a little flat. Others have gone so far as to call her wooden, which I find unfair, but there is definitely room for improvement here. Perhaps her outing as Jane Eyre, due to be released next year, will show better acting chops.
I feel Helena Bonham Carter, whose performances I have previously enjoyed, gave her weakest performance in Alice in Wonderland. Her take on the Red Queen was utterly derivative of Queenie in Blackadder, to the extent that the two were all but inseparable.
The film alternates between scenes of dark woodland and bright and colourful Wonderland countryside. It's not nearly as arresting or breathtaking as Avatar's Pandora, but it is interesting and uniquely Burton. Because of the darker scenes, however, I cannot recommend viewing this in 3-d. I made the conscious decision to see it in plain ol' 2-d after learning that it used post-production 3-d rendering, and I'm glad of my decision. Reviews of the 3-d version have reported finding it dim overall and with much of the colour washed out of the image. This is sadly a side effect of the polarising glasses, one that James Cameron went to extraordinary lengths to circumvent in Avatar, and one that other directors need to become aware of as 3-d becomes relentlessly more prevalent.
I found the film enjoyable and funny. Burton was evidently chasing the pre-teen audience with this film, and in spite it being mostly child-friendly I believe parents would probably enjoy it too. It helps if the adults have an inner kid wanting to get out for a bit.
