by Sarah Arboleda

Created on: April 05, 2010

Curiously Flat: Tim Burton’s Alice in Wonderland

At best, Alice in Wonderland feels like a tour through a Tim Burton museum. All of the actors are perfectly chosen, all of the tree branches are bent in intricate thorny spirals, actresses wear striped stockings and lace gloves and the scenery is composed of charred black landscape or loud colors and everything is bathed in Danny Elfman music. But where was the story?

Alice in Wonderland misses the mark specifically because it’s in such a rush to get to Wonderland, rather than giving the audience an opportunity to identify with its lead. When we first meet Alice, she’s a tearful little girl waking up from a nightmare (she thinks Wonderland was all a dream) with a warm, reassuring, adventurous Father. Then comes the brutal cut: We’re thrust forward ten years or so and Dad is dead for whatever reason, and Mom is nice but not quite Alice’s sort of person, and she’s about to be married off to a stuffy red-headed man but we know she’s not the settling type because she wears pantaloons and shirks a corset.

There’s no opportunity to become invested in Alice before she’s flung down the rabbit hole. And once she’s in Wonderland, we’re caught up in a web of problems that make little sense. Alice is confused and unsure, and so is the audience. Why is she here? What’s going on in Wonderland? Why does Alice need to slay the Jabberwocky? Without understanding the significance of anything, the movie is rather dull despite its wonderful performances – particularly by newcomer Mia Wasikowska who delivers a very realistic performance that never comes off as contrived or cloying.

The other main problem is this: Tim Burton and Johnny Depp need to see other people. While Depp didn’t mangle The Mad Hatter as badly as he did Willy Wonka five years ago, the Burton/Depp pairing is starting to feel lazy and stale. In fact, Depp did a wonderful job as the insane Scottish haberdasher with tufts of bright orange hair, a bowtie of licorice allsorts and Madonna’s gapped teeth. But it’s too safe – we know Johnny Depp can play this character. And ultimately, that’s how the whole film felt – we know Burton and Depp can do this movie, and so it feels like there was no real effort to make it great. A stronger script and a new cast would do Burton a world of good.

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