Charles Lutwidge Dodgson, aka Lewis Carroll, published the book ‘Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland’ in 1865, and later produced the sequel ‘Through the Looking Glass’ in 1871. The books have been heralded as literacy masterpieces, but where the book’s effect on modern culture’s fascination with fantasy has never been lesser. The 15 or so films made, have never fully realised Carroll’s dream-like world. So up steps Tim Burton, the contemporary master of the fantasy genre, his dark style epitomised in films such as ‘Beetlejuice’ and ‘Edward Scissorhands’. Couple this with his attachment to Johnny Depp being rekindled alongside a stellar, mostly British cast, makes a film which is just so close to being outstanding, that it only misses by a hat away.

 

The film opens as you would expect, with Alice struggling to mix in with an upper-class garden party and being coerced into a marriage with a snotty toff. Alice refuses and tears away into the garden only to find an odd looking white rabbit. What marks a departure from the books and earlier films is that this is not aimed squarely at children. Alice herself is not prepubescent but twenty, and the film is not full of bold colour, but coated in a gloomy Burton sheen. The 3D effects are excellent in them selves but only add to the washed out mise en scene.   

 

Burton's version is not just dark, but it’s apocalyptic in style and atmosphere, somewhere close to Christopher's Nolan's take on Batman, The Dark Knight. The emphasis on good versus evil, and the battle-field finale, does feel at odds with the original. The film strays close to a 12 certificate, but is by my no means gory, just sinister in tone.

 

Johnny Depp arrives late on in the film as a ginger and Scottish Mad Hatter. The decision to make The Hatter hold a thick Rab C Nesbitt-esque tongue is odd, especially when The March Hare is also Scottish. Depp though is almost on auto-pilot, with a performance which sits well with other barmy characters like Willy Wonka, but never stretches him. Alongside Helena Bonham Carter as the croquet-playing Queen of Hearts, it's Matt Lucas' Tweedle twins which bring needed comic relief. Lucas' clown pale face and plum frame make him naturally superb for the role.

 

Riddles and rhymes from the books are under used in this adaptation, but Burton finds room for the time-less 'Why is a raven like a writing desk?' The rhyme is left hanging throughout the film until Depp's Hatter gives his answer and says 'I haven't the faintist idea.' It is a subtle ending; that even the maddest of hatters doesn't know the answer to.

 

Matt Hunter