A Date with Destiny

Yesterday marked, at long last, the arrival in movie theaters everywhere of Tim Burton’s much-anticipated latest, his spectacular 3-D take on Alice in Wonderland.

Since I skipped the press screening for reasons that are neither here nor there, I saw the movie today with a ticket-buying audience – and (unfortunately) managed to hear a little som’in’ here, a little som’in’ over there about the blockbuster, none of which sounded at all like ringing endorsements.

But you know what: I enjoyed the Burton’s Alice in Wonderland. I thought the visionary did a good job holding my interest throughout the movie’s 109 minutes – I feel the guy often tends to start strong, meander in the middle, and then just…end.

And although there’s a general lack of wonder in this story – because Burton’s now-19-year-old Alice, as played by Mia Wasikowska, has been in Wonderland before and approaches everything she sees and everyone she meets with déjà vu- and Victorian angst-tinted glasses (not that she’s wearing glasses, mind you) – I found its dystopian atmosphere quite appealing.

Oh yes, this Wonderland Alice visits, or Underland, rather, as its inhabitants call it, isn’t the whimsical world she first encountered as a young girl – or the one you remember. It’s a sad place, very dark. In this Underland, the White Queen (Anne Hathaway) has been banished by her sister, the imperious rule the Red Queen (Helena Bonham Carter).

The White Rabbit (manically voiced by Michael Sheen), Tweedledee and Tweedledum (Little Britain’s Matt Lucas), the Dormouse, the Blue Caterpillar (Alan Rickman), the Cheshire Cat (Stephen Fry), and of course, the Mad Hatter (Johnny Depp, in an unprofound turn) are all still around, but they’re suffering from a generalized Red Rule-inflicted malaise.

They’re in a joyless state, and only Alice can help…if only she remembered who she is, and embraced what she’s supposed to do. Her destiny as a champion, and that of Underland, awaits. Literally, the girl is given a deadline for when she has to make what’s meant to happen happen.

It’s all kinda Buffy the Vampire Slayer, what with Alice and Wonderland’s theme of Chosen Oneness, you know.

And while I feel like Burton & Co. could’ve gone deeper and offered more substance with all this style, which is, usual, tremendous, the powers that be succeeded in telling the story they wanted to tell, even though some of the jokes run tired quickly (the Red Queen yelling off with so and so’s head comes to mind).

They at least gave Wasikowska, who so proved her mettle during the first season of HBO’s In Treatment, her biggest platform yet – a wonderful thing on its own, for she is pretty amazing.

My Rating ***

Photo: Walt Disney Pictures.