Curiouser and curiouser...

Rating: 4/10 (25 July 2010)

A very important date? I wouldn't go that far. Quirky, surrealist director Tim Burton teams up once again with quirky, surrealist actor Johnny Depp as well as the vastly underrated Helena Bonham Carter to recreate Carroll's Wonderland for a new generation. I have always had a love-hate relationship with Burton, more so than any other director, and I found the end result particularly disappointing given this film's potential as a contemporary artistic pleasure.
Alice In Wonderland strays a fair way from the original in terms of plot, character motive and the amount of subliminal pro-drug messages. Or maybe that last one was just me. Alice is now approaching adulthood, and gets a nasty surprise upon showing up at a garden party, learning it is being held with the expectation that she accepts the marriage proposal of a less-than-adequate suitor. Of course, soon after this shocking revelation, she chases the White Rabbit down the hole and commences her adventure.
Let it be known that this is not the beloved Wonderland of your childhood. While it retains many physical elements featured in the original, it is noticeably darker. To be technical, it's been Burton-ised. This means that, just like Edward Scissorhands and Beetlejuice, a nice- enough looking setting foreshadows actions far more sinister under the surface. Positively, this overgrown, poorly maintained background certainly fits the tone of the film; one that seeks to forewarn the audience at all times and give the impression that Wonderland is in fact a dangerous, as opposed to playful, place.
Depth of acting is, for the most part, disappointing. Aussie Mia Wasikowska (repeat after me: Va-shi-kov-ska) struggles to bring realism to a forced Elizabethan accent throughout the film, but this can be largely attributed to her inexperience.
The same reasoning cannot be used for Johnny Depp. Arguably the greatest character actor of his generation, Depp fails to give the Mad Hatter any qualities intended to invoke emotion out of the viewer, which is a shame because he was given a much larger role than initially expected for that exact purpose; to extensively develop the characterisation of the most memorable, yet obscure, creation of Carroll's mind. Instead he lazily channels Jack Sparrow and, in one particularly cringe-worthy scene, Michael Jackson. It just seemed to me that he spent too much time trying to make the Hatter weird in the most literal sense of the word; time that perhaps would have been better spent collaborating over the character's motives and mannerisms.
Without doubt, the highlight of the film is Helena Bonham Carter's comedic portrayal of the Red Queen. Replacing the Queen of Hearts from the original, Carter plays the quintessential scene-stealing villain in an otherwise poor film. She is the only one who makes any effort to apply genuine emotion to her part, and our constant reminding of the fact that she enjoys disengaging people's heads from their bodies is just plain funny.
Overall, a lot of this film's problems stem from an innate inability to decide whether it wants to be a children's film (offering little more than a basic storyline with a flimsily constructed moral in the concluding scene) or an adult-appropriate take on a literary classic. While one may argue the film has a lot to say about embracing one's individuality, it is ultimately hollow and, more importantly, just not necessary in the applied context.
*There's nothing I love more than a bit of feedback, good or bad. So drop me a line on jnatsis@iprimus.com.au and let me know what you thought of my review.*