Dir: James Bobin
Starring: Mia Wasikowska, Johnny Depp, Anne Hathaway,
Helena Bonham Carter, and Sacha Baron Cohen
There
is a moment in “Alice Through the Looking Glass”, Disney’s sequel to 2010’s
“Alice in Wonderland”, when the adventurous, strong-willed Alice commands a
crew of men aboard a ship away from the attacks of charging pirates by going
through treacherous terrain and narrowly escaping. Alice, in this moment in
time, is living the fairy-tale life she has always chased, a life where the
word “impossible” holds no merit. Unfortunately, in the next moment in time,
she is back in the structured Victorian era reality of her hometown being
laughed at by a group of businessmen who inform her that a woman’s place is not
as a captain of a ship.
The
aspects of time and authority play a big role in director James Bobin’s
adaptation, a term used very loosely here, of Lewis Carroll’s novel “Through
the Looking Glass, and What Alice Found There”. Time, as Alice (Mia Wasikowska)
muses, is a villain. One that stole the time she had with her father and
continues to take from her life the older she becomes. Authority, especially
with relationships, continues to manipulate Alice in ways that trouble and
confuse her. The relationship with her mother (Lindsay Duncan), who has always
wanted Alice to be a different kind of woman, is strained and filled with
misunderstandings. While they both love and care for another, neither of them
completely understand one another. Alice’s former fiancé Hamish (Leo Bill), an
irksome and cowardly chauvinistic man, is still sore from being left at the
alter by Alice. Hamish now runs the company that owns Alice’s ship; he tries to
manipulate Alice into a desk job that he deems “fitting” for a woman.
Just
when things couldn’t get much worse for Alice, friends from the past, from her
adventures in Wonderland, send for help. Abosolem (voiced by the late Alan
Rickman) guides Alice through a mirror and into the realm of Wonderland. The
Hatter (Johnny Depp) is in grave danger after finding an object from his past
that leads him to believe his family, who were killed by the winged
Jabberwocky, are still alive. Alice must travel through time to save Wonderland
and her friends.
There
is a great cast of actors seen and heard throughout “Alice Through the Looking
Glass”. The roles they are tasked to play in this film may not always fit the
talent that they have displayed in other roles; still it’s nice to see all
these accomplished actors working. The voice work boasts the talents of Alan
Rickman, Timothy Spall, Stephen Fry, and Michael Sheen to name a few. The
actors on screen are Johnny Depp, Anne Hathaway, Mia Wasikowska, Helena Bonham
Carter, Rhys Ifans, and Sacha Baron Cohen. That is an impressive cast. Too bad
the product here wasn’t better suited to their talents.
Johnny
Depp was a struggle to watch as The Hatter in the first film, he is even harder
to watch in this sequel. Anne Hathaway has a small but doesn’t do much except
say a few lines with a heavy whimsical tone. Sacha Baron Cohen comes in to play
the physical personification of Time; living in a castle-like structure that is
shaped like a clock, the actor adds his signature comedic style throughout his
scenes to garner a few laughs. Mia Wasikowska, who plays Alice with a mix of
elegance and awkwardness, has a great presence on screening and holds many of
the scenes together. These are exceptionally talented people operating in a
story that is messy, contrived, and lacking in any kind of depth that makes the
characters endearing.
Any
character development or subtle emotional moment within a scene is consumed by
the overindulgence of computer-generated effects. It’s hard to fault a film
that is trying to create scenes of wonder and enchantment through physical
structures and characters, the big and boisterous and blossoming scenery works
when utilized in small amounts. Still, this extravagance of effects
becomes distracting and takes away significantly from the characters in the
film. Again, this is a film that consistently references the aspect of time and
how it affects our lives in ways we may never understand, how we struggle with
time taken away by death, how we struggle with aging. It’s a film that displays
the structures of authority through relationships between a father and
son, a mother and daughter, and two siblings. These are compelling aspects of
storytelling that could have been utilized. While one could say that I am
expecting too much from what is ultimately a children’s story, Pixar and Studio
Ghibli have been making children’s stories with very mature subject matter for
years with great success.
“Alice
Through the Looking Glass” has small moments of potential; unfortunately
these moments happen when Alice isn't in Wonderland. At nearly two hours in
length the film struggles to stay afloat. This was partly because it
exaggerated everything the first film did wrong and partly because it
squandered good source material and exceptional actors in favor of unnecessary
extravagance.
Monte’s Rating
1.75 out
of 5.00
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