Alice in Wonderland: movie review
The betting line on the new Disney 3-D 鈥淎lice in Wonderland鈥� was that it would be marvelous because the imaginings of its director, Tim Burton, are pronouncedly in sync with Lewis Carroll鈥檚. But are they really? The movie is a decidedly mixed bag, in part, because of the equally pronounced disparities between Burton and Carroll 鈥� and between Burton and Disney, for that matter.
When Burton made 鈥�Sweeney Todd,鈥� he transformed Stephen Sondheim鈥檚 elegant blood sport into a charnel house. In 鈥�Alice in Wonderland,鈥� Carroll鈥檚 maniacally witty and disturbing phantasmagoria inspires a lot of sinister Tim Burton-isms. The problem is, most of the Burton-isms are half-baked.
I wouldn鈥檛 have minded if Burton used Carroll as the merest of jumping-off points for his own nightmarish visions. What we have instead is a hybrid: Carroll鈥檚 hallucinatory wit crossed with Burton鈥檚 rank unseemliness rolled into Disney 鈥渨holesomeness.鈥� (The script is by Linda Woolverton, who is credited on 鈥�The Lion King,鈥� 鈥�Beauty and the Beast,鈥� and 鈥�Mulan.鈥�) In the end, 鈥淎lice in Wonderland鈥� doesn鈥檛 work either as visionary entertainment or as plain old family entertainment.
IN PICTURES: Academy Award for Best Picture nominees
Burton has lifted ample amounts from both 鈥淎lice鈥檚 Adventures in Wonderland鈥� and 鈥淭hrough the Looking Glass,鈥� but, crucially, he sets the story, for the most part, 13 years ahead of the material in the books, so that Alice (Mia Wasikowska), instead of being a preteen, is 19. Alice鈥檚 journey via rabbit hole into Wonderland (called Underland here), represents her second, not first, such descent. And her escape is mundanely motivated: She cuts out on an arranged marriage to an upper-crust twit.
Wasikowski has a Pre-Raphaelite Goldilocks look that鈥檚 shimmeringly fine, and she gives Alice some much-needed backbone, too. Her ballast grounds her in the Underland, where the film becomes heavily computer-generated and expands into full-blown 3-D (though the above ground scenes are, uninterestingly, in 3-D, too). Alice holds her own with Absolem, the Blue Caterpillar (voiced with world-weary aplomb by Alan Rickman); Tweedledee and Tweedledum (Matt Lucas); the Cheshire Cat (Stephen Fry); the White Rabbit (Michael Sheen); and the hunting dog Bayard (Timothy Spall). She even stands up to the Red Queen, portrayed triumphantly by Helena Bonham Carter as a yowling oversized head atop a pint-sized body. (As for Anne Hathaway鈥檚 White Queen, the less said the better 鈥� she鈥檚 so pallid that her head might have been dunked in a sack of flour.).
The big draw here, of course, is Johnny Depp as the Mad Hatter, and, contrary to expectations, he underplays the role. His Hatter may have a clownish orange aureole of hair and a pasty face ringed with raccoonish eye shadow but he鈥檚 first and foremost a gentleman. Even though I initially wished for a more hypercharged performance from Depp, I appreciated his delicacy and charm. He knows when to chew the scenery and when to go on a diet.
At times, Burton seems to be channeling 鈥�The Wizard of Oz鈥� as much as Lewis Carroll, and the familiarity is more confusing than enchanting. Other times, especially at the end, when the film devolves into a generic action fantasy, it summons up 鈥�The Lord of the Rings.鈥� I kept expecting Frodo to intervene. Not a good sign.
Burton originally shot 鈥淎lice in Wonderland鈥� in 2-D and then converted it to 3-D. One might have thought that Burton, who is also a gifted artist, would go hog wild exploring the possibilities of 3-D rather than retrofitting his movie to cash in on the current craze. As with so much else in this movie, he鈥檚 pulling his punches. No knockouts here. No tkos, either. Grade: C+ (Rated PG for fantasy action/violence involving scary images and situations, and for a smoking caterpillar.)
