"Alice In Wonderland" is director Tim Burton's new version of Lewis Carroll's "Alice's Adventures In Wonderland" with a little bit of the author's sequel, "Through The Looking-Glass," thrown in for good measure.
Walt Disney Pictures did not screen the feature in advance of its opening in many areas of the country, always a sign that a studio is worried about box office potential. I think this non-screening policy does a disservice to the people who made the movie in question, regardless of the merit of the film.
Disney made a full-length animated "Alice In Wonderland" that was released in 1951. It's one of those colorful cartoon delights, many of which have memorable songs, that signified the Disney empire at the time. The animated "Alice In Wonderland" alone has 16 catchy tunes. Supposedly Walt himself wasn't happy with the movie, but I have always found it to be entertaining.
Along comes Burton with his jaundiced eye and vivid imagination to put a new spin on Carroll's whimsical tale. He blends live-action and computer animation. The problem with the new effort is that it ignores the fact that the author wrote the story to enchant a little girl and to pique her imagination.
Burton's "Alice In Wonderland" is not for little children. I'm quite surprised by the PG (Parental Guidance) rating, considering how weirdly the story is told, how strange and sometimes foreboding it is, and that it includes numerous references to beheadings and a terrifying Jabberwocky creature right out of the Dark Side. I guess Disney's clout kept the PG-13 rating at bay.
There's not a lot of good news to report. The film comes across as less a fable and more of a canvas to allow Burton's lover Helena Bonham Carter and his pal Johnny Depp to stretch the limits of hammy acting.
I did enjoy Carter as the Red Queen -- her giant head with its teeny tiny heart-shaped lipstick is a hoot. I did not enjoy Depp as much. His Mad Hatter is more of an extension of the Wonka character he did for Burton than it is anything else.
"Alice In Wonderland," which is being shown in both 3-D and 2-D, begins with 6-year-old Alice worried about a dream she keeps having. We then jump to a 19-year-old Alice who's late for a garden party in stuffy old England. A toothy lump of a well-mannered and wealthy young gent named Hamish is going to ask for her hand in marriage.
Before she can say yes or no, she sees the White Rabbit and follows him down a hole. There we get into the Drink Me, Eat Me size-altering routine, and eventually Alice finds herself in Wonderland, although the locals, including the Red Queen, call it Underland.
She encounters the usual suspects: the Dormouse, the Knave Of Hearts, the Blue Caterpillar, the March Hare, Tweedledee and Tweedledum, as well as the aforementioned Red Queen and Mad Hatter. Many of them ask if she is the "one" who was there before.
This twisted version takes Alice into war against the Jabberwocky dragon because the Red Queen unleashes its powers after the Mad Hatter refuses to be beheaded. Alice doesn't go into battle lightly, but agrees to do it because the queasy and very pretty White Queen has asked her to.
That's your movie, folks, and it isn't very good. There are many boring passages, which make the relatively short 108-minute running time seem even longer. Visually, the film is pleasurable and sometimes downright fascinating. I saw it in 3-D, and it succeeds on that level.
However, the images need a better story, not some contrived attempt at a fantasy epic right out of C.S. Lewis or J.R.R. Tolkien. There's even a magic sword that comes into play. What were Burton and his screenwriter Linda Woolverton thinking?
The acting is hit and miss. Mia Wasikowska, who plays the older Alice, is terrible. Why on earth was she chosen? She has no dynamism. Her voice is thin, and she punctuates almost nothing she says with anything remotely resembling acting.
Alan Rickman as the voice of the Blue Caterpillar and Stephen Fry as the voice of the Cheshire Cat are very good. Like Carter's Queen, the clever cat brings some energy to the movie.
Matt Lucas scores points as the voice of both Tweedledee and Tweedledum. Anne Hathaway's White Queen is strictly from amateur theater night in Dullsville. Why she was directed to be a twit is anybody's guess. Crispin Glover's conniving Knave seems to be in another movie, "The Knights of the Round Table," perhaps.
Overall, what this film lacks is a sense of wonder. Carroll's story, which has stood the test of time, is about a little girl finding her way through a magical universe, not about some snippy teenager ticked off at the guy her mother wants her to marry. There's more childhood innocence in individual scenes in Burton's "Pee Wee's Big Adventure" than there is in the entirety of this failed "Alice In Wonderland."
"Creation" is a very interesting movie about naturalist Charles Darwin (Paul Bettany) and the struggle within his own household over the release of his findings about the origin of the species.
Darwin married his cousin Emma (Jennifer Connelly), a devout Christian who bore him 10 children, one of whom provides the framework for this film. She's Annie, who died at age 10. Darwin and his wife believed her death could have been attributable to the fact that they were first cousins.
The movie, which is nicely directed by Jon Amiel and well-written by John Collee from Randal Keynes' biography, "Annie's Box," reveals to us how conflicted Darwin was about his scientific findings and how pressured he felt by Emma's religious beliefs. He respected her opinions and honored her input, even if it did create tension within the marriage.
Darwin also turns to a family religious leader (Jeremy Northam) to help him more clearly see the issues. The superbly acted "Creation" is a rare gem, a film about ideas that encourages an audience to think for itself.
With "Brooklyn's Finest," director Antone Fuqua is treading water. He's traveled down this thematic road before, and much better, in his "Training Day."
This time around, three Brooklyn cops find their stories merging in brutal and uncompromising ways.
Richard Gere is a patrolman about to retire. He lives a very empty life. He practices killing himself and patronizes a favorite prostitute.
Ethan Hawke is on the anti-drug squad, but he faces the temptation to steal money from the dealers he arrests because he needs a larger house for his growing family.
Don Cheadle is an undercover agent who wants to be off the streets and in a safer and more secure station house situation. Add to the mix Wesley Snipes as a conduit between Cheadle and young punks on dope, as well as Lili Taylor as Hawke's pregnant, obsequious wife.
Director Fuqua and his screenwriter Michael C. Martin have created mean streets and meaner dispositions. The problem here is that this kind of gritty cop drama, with its astonishing level of ugly violence, cops betraying other cops, gang-bangers, rookie cops and seasoned pros, forlorn women and cliched villainy, seems almost anachronistic.
I sensed no urgency to be original on the part of the director or the screenwriter. Cliches abound, from the grainy cinematography to stereotypes of every human stripe. "Brooklyn's Finest" is certainly very well made, but to serve what purpose?
| Niagara Falls Reporter | www.niagarafallsreporter.com | March 9, 2010 |