Movie: Alice Through the Looking Glass

Alice Through the Looking Glass:  not what Lewis Carroll had envisioned.  Quite frankly, it was not what I was expecting either considering that the script’s author is Linda Woolverton, the same person who penned Tim Burton’s Alice in Wonderland.  To create a successful movie based on a Lewis Carroll novel, a certain degree of nonsensical disorder is necessary.  However, in this film directed by James Bobin, there is oftentimes only disorder.  While certain individual scenes are brilliant, the overall result is massive disarray and confusion.  Part of the problem is that much of the original story has been jettisoned without benefit of a solid creative replacement.  We have the Mad Hatter (Johnny Depp) looking for his family, within a father-son schism, after we all understood the family had died.  There is that Nice Girl/Mean Girl thing going on between the Red Queen (Helena Bonham Carter) and the White Queen (Anne Hathaway).  Carter’s performance is strong while Hathaway is, again, just Hathaway.  To the extent this movie has any storyline, it is about time travel:  Alice (Mia Wasikowska) steals a gyroscopic time machine in an effort to alter the past.  I enjoyed Sacha Baron Cohen in the role of Time, but even he has problems with the bizarre script.  During the course of the film’s 113 minutes, the typical “Alice in Wonderland” characters make their appearance, and when Tweedledee & Tweeledum (Matt Lewis), the White Rabbit and company are on screen, the film has a more centered, enjoyable feel.  Their presence, however, is quite limited and cannot rescue this confused tale.  IF you’re set on seeing this film, see it in a theatre so you can at least savor the special effects.  As to whether you should make the effort to see this film, my answer would be no.