All Sparkle and No Heart
May 17, 2016
Alice Through the Looking Glass (2016).
D: James Bobin. DP: Stuart Dryburgh. W: Linda Woolverton. Starring: Johnny Depp/Mia Wasikowska/Helena Bonham Carter/Anne Hathaway/Sacha Baron Cohen/Rhys Ifans/Matt Lucas/Andrew Scott. Voice talents of: Alan Rickman/Martin Sheen/Stephen Fry/Toby Jones. (Based on characters created by Lewis Carroll)
Here lies the long to come forward sequel to Tim Burton’s 2010 live action version of Alice in Wonderland. With Burton passing the directorial mantel to Muppets helmer James Bobin, the special effects heavy film appears nearly six years after the first. Unfortunately, this film is more visual tricks than story and once again underwhelms in Underland.
Screenwriter Linda Woolverton again works her Disney resume onto this script. However, where I thought Maleficent was fresh, this script lacks anything really new to say about this world. The film is primarily focused on the Hatter’s (Johnny Depp) past and rescuing his family. Alice (Mia Wasikowska) arrives again in her imagination to insert herself into the action, or lack of, in Wonderland. Alice takes on the Hatter’s mission guided by the Hatters friends. She tricks Time, here literally personified by Sacha Baron Cohen, and steals the cronosphere which allows her to travel back in time. Yet, annoyingly, Alice simply says not once, but twice what the plot-line/action of the film will be. Despite its younger audience this is just lazy writing.
Most if not all the humor lies in the character of Time portrayed by Cohen. He brings his signature deadpan and wit to a film that feels mostly decorative. Colleen Atwood again designs an intricate piece of costuming for the film. Half of Cohen’s head seems to be made of gears and other watch parts and his over accentuated Soviet looking armor makes Cohen even taller than he is. Wasikowska’s older adult Alice is no match for him and she seems to blend into the scenery no matter what Atwood dresses her in. Anne Hathaway returns with her poor British accent as the White Queen whose airiness seems sillier here. Of course, in Wonderland there is nothing wrong with silly, but there is just not enough story to back up these performances.
Of course Depp returns as the Hatter, but he is sick for most of the film and seen in the past. Depp has revved him up since Alice in Wonderland and he is more cartoonish than weird. Maybe without Burton he is left to his own devices and that might not be a good thing. Same with Helena Bonham Carter as the Red Queen. It is difficult to care about characters who create the same conflicts across films. Rhys Ifans does a nice turn as the Hatter’s father and it is heartwarming to hear dear departed Alan Rickman’s voice again as the blue caterpillar. Ultimately, Alice Through the Looking Glass tries to age Alice up and create a space that Carroll’s second book did not. I applaud the effort, but special effects cannot be everything. You must have a heart.
Something Wicked This Way Comes…
October 21, 2015
Crimson Peak (2015).
D: Guillermo del Toro. DP: Dan Lausten. W: Guillermo del Toro & Matthew Robbins. Starring: Mia Waskikowska/Jessica Chastain/Tom Hiddleston/Charle Hunnam/Jim Beaver/Burn Gorman.
Halloween is nearly here and timed to the holiday comes spook master Guillermo del Toro’s newest film Crimson Peak. His first directorial effort since 2013’s Pacific Rim, the Mexican director has been involved with other projects in many ways. His departure from Warner Brother’s The Hobbit Trilogy was discussed at length in a recent profile in The New Yorker. He brings to this new film the same visual style that was so glorious in his 2006 film Pan’s Labyrinth and won the film three Oscars (cinematography, art direction, and make-up).
Crimson Peak is visual splendor. Set in the vague time of the turn of the last century the film follows Edith Cushing (Mia Wasikowska) who as a child is visited by her mother’s ghost who warns her of Crimson Peak. Once of age Edith turns to writing, ghosts included, but is quickly enchanted by the arrival of the tall, dark and English Sir Thomas Sharpe (Tom Hiddleston). After her father’s untimely death, Edith marries Thomas and embarks to his home to live with his sister Lucille (Jessica Chastain).
Without giving much away the film’s tone of Gothic horror is as rich and red as the clay that Thomas peddles from his estate. Wasikowska’s Edith feels like Anne of Green Gables, too sharp for her time and easily seduced by puff sleeves and romance, and that is a compliment. Australian Wasikowska whose Alice in Wonderland days are soon to resurface, brings a stylish innocence that works for the heroine of a dark tale. Although not as emotionally demanding as her fine performance in 2011’s Jane Eyre she is great here, her blond tresses working in stark contrast to Chastain’s auburn ones. Originally Emma Stone was cast who would not have fit though Benedict Cumberbatch could have made a good Thomas.
The trio have good chemistry that revolves around Hiddleston’s ability to dazzle in the dark. Known for his role as Loki in the Thor and Avengers films, Hiddleston has the right balance of danger and sex. Yet his hair could have been better, seems trivial, but it’s too reminiscent of Loki. The few flaws in Crimson Peak lie with Chastain and Charlie Hunnam. Her stiff and diabolical Lucille lacks complexity and unfortunately she is never quite able to nail her English accent. Chastain’s Edith is rather too two note, up or down, hot or cold. Del Toro is said to have been inspired by Italian horror master Mario Bava. I see echoes of Black Sunday here, but Chastain is no Barbara Steele. Visually she looks the part, but it never quite takes off. Hunnam is simply too clean and earnest, his snooping is fine, but obvious.
Crimson Peak‘s greatest achievement is the Sharpe estate. Nearly sinking into the red clay of the land the house is so dilapidated the distinctions between outside and in is blurred. Snow comes through the house as bugs live and die. It’s Disney’s Haunted Mansion, but for adults. The ghosts themselves are part vision and corpse. Del Toro’s masterful hand is breathtaking and subtle. He builds worlds not creatures. To think of his what his Hobbit films would have been like is to think of the dream so intricate and beautiful you cannot remember it.