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UK 2009
Director: Simon Fellows
Cast: Maggie Grace, Danny Dyer, Matt King, Nathaniel Parker, Bronagh Gallagher, Anthony Higgins
Rating: R
Release Date: 5 February 2010 (UK)
Running Time: 1 hour 23 minutes
The Movie Review
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| MALICE In WONDERLAND |
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No, it's not a spoof of Alice in Wonderland, in case you're wondering. Malice in Wonderland is a modern interpretation of the legendary novel titled Alice in Wonderland written by English author Lewis Carroll. Directed by the one behind 7 Seconds (2005) and Until Death (2007), the movie tells about a journey of a woman knocked unconscious on the street while escaping from two men in suits!
In London, a young 20-ish-year old blonde American woman (Maggie Grace) escapes from the men chasing her for no apparent reason. A cab driver, Whitey (Danny Dyer of Dead Man Running (2008)), is shocked to have hit her and he initially intends to leave her but after an old couple kinda threatens to call the police, Whitey takes her for a ride and promises her to take her home. However, Whitey is actually very busy at the moment looking for a present for Mr. Henry Hunt (Nathaniel Parker) the notorious mob boss who's going to throw birthday party in his Hearts Kingdom. However, this young woman forgot her name and who she is... And she has to venture the dark side of London and the colourful underworld people before she can figure out what has been happening... What will Whitey do to help this clueless American young woman? Who is she running from anyway?
I'm actually always all over the concept of seeing a modern interpretation of old/classic works, since they offer us something realistic to our current life. But Malice in Wonderland is a miss. I don't mind it to trample with Alice's story and the filmmakers even try to mimic several stuff to Alice's but the result is a confusing mess that holds no mystery or intensity.
Malice in Wonderland plays with un-naturally glowing red-blue-green lightings to add some touch of fantasy, and putting some odd-looking characters to heighten the sense of whimsical world. However, those efforts combined with London urban landscape do not make Malice in Wonderland becomes interesting, on the contrary it becomes too psychedelic like some kind of grindhouse movies from the 70s. What's even more annoying is the lengthy flashback scenes that seems to be inserted merely as filler and even these scenes have annoying visuals and too distorted.
Malice in Wonderland won't mean much for those un-familiar with the original story of Alice in Wonderland. This fantasy thriller film does give implications of characters appearing in the movie to the original characters of Alice in Wonderland like White Rabbit, Mad Hatter, Twiddledee and Twiddledum and Cheshire Cat including their distinctive tone of voice. But it also means bad for (like I said before) those who don't know Alice. I wish I could say that Malice in Wonderland is a good movie by its own accord, but unfortunately it's just mediocre as fantasy, lackluster as thriller and devoid of any real actions, and it's also not funny. But shockingly, the drama works! In fact the ending is very memorable and touching that it is somehow justifies seeing this fantasy film. Yes, the story needs a lot of improvement here and there, but the ending is simply feel-good emotional...
> Red Riding Hood also has modern interpretation which savvily employs colours to build the mood: Hard Candy (2005).
> The first and latest Alice in Wonderland: Alice in Wonderland (1903) and Alice in Wonderland 3D (2010).
© iwan pranowo of Movielogy.com
Twitter: @movielogy
posted: Wednesday, 2 November 2011 11:44 pm
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