Soulless, by the numbers and drained of redeeming strangeness – hardly a 'wonderland'

Rating: 5/10 (25 March 2010)

If ever there was a match seemingly tailor made in cinematic heaven, the fusion of Lewis Carroll's cheerfully strange children's fable Alice in Wonderland and Tim Burton, celebrated for his equally bizarre and beautifully grotesque cinematic aesthetics would seem to be it. And yet. For so definitive a pairing, the viewer is never left without a sense of want for more - an elusive sense of lacking throughout. And then the reality of the experience ultimately settles in, yielding a bounty of profound disappointment - Burton's Alice in Wonderland is a project so handpicked for success that it could never have emerged as anything but what it is: the latest in a slew of films geared for great promise, yet ultimately saddled with being a fundamentally soulless, functionable yet frustratingly by-the-numbers piece of mainstream entertainment.
For all the talk of the project being darker, quirkier and edgier than past incarnations of Carroll's cherished tale, it is a remarkable experience to see dark, quirky and edgy be distilled into such an innocuous, harmless slab of comfortable, conventional film-making. There is a perpetual sense of narrative boxes being ticked: the stifling, claustrophobic aristocratic home life in Alice's 'real world', the array of visual trickery, jaw dropping sets and colourful, memorable characters, all introduced in turn for the sake allowing them all their moment, the necessary exposition for the sake of elucidating viewers unaccustomed to Carroll's world, the reveal of the hero's perilous quest and her requisite struggle with acceptance and 'coming of age'. It feels unsettling to see Burton, a filmmaker previously associated with jolting or at least tweaking expectations, delivering plot point after plot point in so cozy, docile and gormless a fashion, as if delivering the familiar formula with additional pablum rather than shaking it up.
This is not to say that Alice in Wonderland is a downright poor film - the standard of quality elements on display remains impressive throughout. It is simply the perpetual sense of the film as such an obvious construction, as if slapped together in a factory from a mould designed for maximum comfortable entertainment, which undercuts all its more laudable elements. Gutted is Carroll's penchant for clever wordplay, subversive mind games or surrealist touches, in favour of a tame adventure/redemption story, with even the stranger characters and settings seemingly inserted for the sake of crafting the illusion of innovation. Equally, the constant references to Alice's previous trip to Wonderland, rather than providing an insightful rumination on the echoing of cultural narratives, instead feel muddled and unwieldly, culminating in a clumsy parable attempting to outline the inevitability of one's actions while also championing (implicitly impossible) individual empowerment, making for an unbalanced thematic centre.
Even Burton's Wonderland, while providing an enjoyable mess of colour and twisted forms, evoking dregs of fascination (the castle moat requiring passage over decapitated human heads is a nicely grotesque touch, albeit one out of place in the overall kid-friendly veneer), feels a tiresomely constructed affair, as if cobbled together by a novice attempting to 'do' Burton rather than the legendary director himself. Even the much heralded 3D effects, while fun, do little to add to any immersive sense of environment or fantasy awe. And Danny Elfman's score leaves one wondering if any traces of his previous flair for enthusiastic, memorable themes remains intact, as his latest work only serves to hammer out banal musical cliché after cliché, further accentuating the overall bland and innocuous feel.
Similarly, the cast run the risk of coasting by on their ideal casting rather than mustering up enough motivation to truly sell their performances. As Alice, Mia Wasikowska encapsulates the overall feel through her performance: serviceably charismatic, balancing moments of wide-eyed innocence with hard worn maturity, yet tiresomely bland and lacking any real spark. Johnny Depp's Mad Hatter delivers yet another cheerfully deranged loon, but the novelty of his eccentricities wears perilously thin, making his bulging green eyes and garrulously fluctuating accents still lack the necessary punch to distinguish his Hatter from past oddball creations. Likewise is Helena Bonham Carter's petulant Red Queen, coasting on apparent autopilot and lacking the vindictive leering to make her "Off with their heads!" really hit home. Anne Hathaway emerges in a more favourable light as the White Queen, subversively twisting the ethereal, gossamer royalty clichés with an undercurrent of irritable edge, and offering one of the film's few traces of subtlety. Such is a quality sorely lacking in the awkwardly stretched Crispin Glover's Red Knave, one of the most harmless 'creepy evil' characters in years, and Matt Lucas' comic relief twins Tweedledee and Tweedledum, whose banter is so boring and banal one is left debating the purpose of their inclusion at all. The celebrity-voiced animals prove more endearing, particularly Stephen Fry's sumptuously oily and sanguine Cheshire Cat and Alan Rickman's gleefully grumpy Caterpillar, but one is left lamenting the peerless Christopher Lee's booming tones as the ferocious Jabberwocky being reduced to a single line, as shameless a piece of stunt casting as his pointless appearance in 2007's The Golden Compass. It is telling that the most enjoyable and fully realized character is the deranged March Hare, a consistent background player, who, through continually throwing crockery around and unhinged cackling, injects the film with crucially lacking dashes of spontaneity and energy.
There is undeniable entertainment to be found in Burton's Wonderland: exciting battles, strangely stylized sets and quirky characters. But it is the near flaunted sense of artificiality, of the consciously constructed package of the affair, which leaves a continual disconnect between the viewer and true engagement or enjoyment. Perhaps the involvement of Disney should have suggested such a docile, friendly take, but for all averse to quality yet blandly assembled fantasy adventure, this is one rabbit hole worth staying out of.
-5.5/10