Alice In Wonderland - The Film

Since I had been in Alice in Wonderland kind of mood for the last week or so anyway, I decided on Saturday that I might as well get the DVD and watch the Disney-Tim Burton-Johnny Depp version of it.

A Short Review:

It is not really the Alice in Wonderland we know from the book (i.e. if you’ve actually ever read it).  But that’s okay (and I’d say it’s especially okay if you’ve actually just recently reread the book).

In the book Alice keeps questioning whether she is the same person as she was.

Let me think: was I the same when I got up this morning? I almost think I can remember feeling a little different. But if I'm not the same, the next question is, Who in the world am I?

In the film, the Wonderland/ Underland creatures also keep questioning whether she is the “right” Alice. Just as in the book, she keeps shrinking and growing, and it takes some trials to find her right size. Both physically and in other respects. The Mad Hatter says to her:

“You’re not the same as you were before. You were much more muchier. You’ve lost your muchness.” 

So of course, before we get to the end, Alice must regain that muchness, by doing things she had not thought herself capable of. And so she does; but while the ending is on the one hand very predictable (since it is “foretold”), on the other hand it is still not quite traditional.

On the whole, I liked it better than I expected.

Now for the extended Review:

On the whole, I liked it better than I expected.

Actually, I sort of knew that I would, right from the start. Not before I bought it, but from moment I started watching.

The setting is made very clear. There is a short scene at the start where little Alice tells her father about having had a strange dream. Then suddenly Alice is 19 years old and obviously feeling very much trapped in the social conventions and expectations of her time (18th century Victorian setting). She is confronted with a choice, flees from it by following the rabbit, falls down the hole… and finds herself back in the dream from her childhood, where things are the same and yet different.

The characters in story are picked from both Alice books (the second entitled Through The Looking Glass). Some of them are also sort of mixed up with each other (like the Queen of Hearts from the first book and the Red Queen from the second). Since I have not reread the second book as recently as the first one, my memories of that one are less clear.

Anyway, I found this to be rather okay too, because the context of it all being a dream – a fiction of Alice’s own imagination – is being kept throughout.

At a critical moment, Alice says:

“From the moment I fell down that rabbit hole, I’ve been told what I must do and who I must be. I’ve been shrunk, stretched, scratched and stuffed into a teapot. I’ve been accused of being Alice, and of not being Alice. But this is my dream. I’ll decide where it goes from here. I make the path.”

Now, if you’re in the mood to be critical, there are of course a few such points you could make as well.

For one thing, you might say it is a bit too much obviously Disney (displayed in faithful dogs and fairy tale castles and whatnot).

 

For another, you might also say it is a bit too much Tim Burton + Johnny Depp. Some review I read on the internet said for example that there is too little difference between Johnny Depp as Willy Wonka and Johnny Depp as the Mad Hatter. And there is something in that.

Yes. I think I’d say the Mad Hatter is Depps’s Willy Wonka with Depp’s Scottish accent of J.M. Barrie (from Finding Neverland, about the author of Peter Pan) and Depp’s walk from Benny and Joon (where his character imitates Buster Keaton). In short: It’s Johnny Depp… But that also means there is some depth to the character. (For one thing, we get to see the Hatter actually making hats.)

A third point of criticism might be that the story is a bit too much 21st century special effects dragon-slaying adventure. But – the ingredients are there in Carroll’s books, even if the film has made much of what was little in the books, and the other way round.

Some critics might find it a distortion of the story to have a 19 year old Alice. I think it works rather well, seen in relation to all the shrinking and growing and searching for identity. I must also say that I was very impressed with Mia Wasikowska’s performance as Alice.

 

The Red Queen is played by Helena Bonham Carter, not really easily recognizable with heavy makeup and some considerable digital distortion of her head. But good acting really makes the character.

 

 

 

 

Anne Hathaway’s portrayal of the White Queen is also interesting. She’s supposed to be the good one, but there is some darkness in her as well. 

 

 

 

All in all, I enjoyed it. Maybe one has to be a little bit mad to do so. But as Alice’s father said to her, and she in turn to the Mad Hatter: “All the best people are”…

BTT: A Fictional Day At The Beach

 http://btt2.wordpress.com/2010/07/29/beach-buddies/  Suggested by Joy: Which fictional character (or group of characters) would you like to spend a day at the beach with? Why would he/she/they make good beach buddies? Now that's a question that requires some thinking... Not what book I'd like to spend a day at the beach with, but what character from the fictional world...!  First of all, it was a long time since I spent a whole day at the beach. In fact it has been a long time since I spent a whole day anywhere away from home. Part of the day is another matter. But this summer - and in fact a few summers back - all I've done at any beach or lakeside is really to walk along it, take a few photos, maybe sit down on a bench or rock for a few minutes and contemplate.  
Varberg on the West Coast of Sweden, 2001 Back in the days when I did sometimes spend a whole day at the beach at a seaside resort, my literary company would often be some crime mystery novel. I'm not sure I would dare bring any of those detectives with me in real life, though, since that would most likely just mean trouble! If I had to choose one of them, I think it would be Miss Marple. We would sit in comfortable deck chairs in the shadow of some tree - she knitting, and I just resting -  and watch people and draw conclusions about them. If she spotted something interesting, I could get up and take a photo, just in case we might find ourselves in need of evidence later. She'd probably have a pair of binoculars rather than a camera; pretending to watch birds rather than people. 
Whitley Bay, English North Sea Coast, 1971  If I wanted male company, I'd choose Lord Peter Wimsey. You may notice I take an old-fashioned British attitude to beach life. I think they had the right idea. Deck-chairs and fully dressed. Perhaps just a daring bare-foot walk along the shore to feel the water wet your feet. Anyway, other advantages of inviting Lord Peter would be that he would drive me in his car, and Bunter would come along and serve lunch, and sort out the deck chairs and umbrellas and things. And if Peter and I wanted a moment alone, Bunter could go and chat with Miss Marple. I'm sure they'd find plenty to talk about.  There. I think I have my day at the beach all set. I just really hope no one dies. A minor mystery of a disappearing piece of jewellry or something would  be excitement enough.  

Book Review: Slow Man

Slow Man is a novel from 2005 by J.M. Coetzee, winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2003.

For the first twelve chapters, it appears to be a pretty straightforward story. The main character, Paul Reyment, a man ”on the threshold of comfortable old age” as the text on the back cover says, is the victim of a traffic accident, which results in the amputation of one of his legs. Besides the common problems of old age, he now also has to deal with becoming an invalid, dependent on other people for help with the most trivial things. He has to hire a nurse to take care of him, and he goes through a few before he finds one with whom he feels comfortable. When he does find her, he soon finds himself developing feelings for her that go beyond the patient-nurse relationship. He lets daydreams run away with him; extending his affection to her children, but ignoring (among other things) the fact that there is also a husband in the background whom he has never met.

The story so far is interesting in itself, and well-written enough to keep the reader's interest up.

Then one day Paul ”takes the plunge”, bringing his feelings for Marijana out into the open... And from that point on, we are no longer in a straightforward story at all; because suddenly, on Paul's doorstep, out of nowhere, Elizabeth Costello arrives, and starts to interfere.

Slow Man is the first book I ever read by Coetzee. I was not aware, when entering chapter 13, that Elizabeth Costello is also the title of a separate novel preceding this one, from 2003. I found that out later, when reading up on the author a bit. I'm not sure it matters much, however, because it is pretty obvious from the context of Slow Man alone, that Elizabeth Costello (in this book) appears as the ”alter ego” of the Author.

This is how she presents herself:

'I was going to say I was from the State Library,' she says. 'I was going to introduce myself as one of the Library's volonteers, come to assess the scale of your donation, the physical scale I mean, the dimensions, so that we can plan ahead. Later it would have come out who I actually am.'
'You are not from the library?'
'No. That would have been a fib.'

(Paul has a collection of old photographs which he has decided to bequeath to the State Library after his death.)

It is made clear that Elizabeth Costello is the Elizabeth Costello, renowned writer; and she goes on to quote the initial paragraph from the first chapter of the book we are in...

The continued dialogue between Paul and Elizabeth does not only bring to the surface all the moral and practical problems that Paul has been suppressing or ignoring in his daydreams; it also brings to the surface the Author's struggle with the independence of her own creation. The interaction between them is far from simple. For example, Paul, who at first just ”occurred to” Elizabeth - ”a man with a bad leg and an unsuitable passion”, turns out to have a past, which she knows nothing about – it is he who has to tell her about it, not the other way round.

Enough revealed. This is a book which manages to do at least three things simultaneously: Tell a good story. Raise questions about some serious moral issues. Analyse the relationship between the writer (any writer) and his/her work of fiction. All done with an admirable mix of humour and compassion!

Wordzzle and other Challenges of the Week

Just in case someone by old habit should happen to come here today to look for my usual contribution to Raven's Saturday Wordzzle Challenge, I'm repeating the fact that last weekend I moved my attempts at fiction to a new blog of mine, Wordly Efforts. Including all previous episodes + new summary of my ongoing Wordzzle-based story The Slumber Party Mystery.

After finishing that job, my desktop computer died, which still remains a mystery unsolved.

Thanks to also having a laptop computer though, I have managed to keep blogging, so scroll down or have a look in the blog archive to see what else has happened this week. Now if you excuse me, I think I will have to answer to the laptop's request to be allowed to do a complete back up...

Not Just Narnia

Looking through my email files, I found one I had sent to myself and forgotten about!

I think it is a post I originally wrote for some subforum at the Harry Potter discussion forum Leaky Lounge, in answer to someone asking for more info on books by C.S. Lewis, other than The Chronicles of Narnia.

I read most of C.S. Lewis's works. A good place to start if you want to get aquainted with his basic theology is Mere Christianity. A more personal touch on his conversion can be found in his autobiography Surprised by Joy.

I haven't heard of a "complete works" edition but I think most of his books are getting reprinted every now and then.

The Space Trilogy consists of Out of the Silent Planet, Perelandra, and That Hideous Strength. These are not children's books but intended for more grown-up readers. Like the Narnia books they deal with good and evil, and stretch from creation till the end of the world themes. In the first two the main character Ransom, travels into space and lands on other planets, where evil is not yet found. But evil is introduced into these worlds by two other humans, Weston and Devine. The last book takes place on Earth but with "intervention" from otherworldly beings that Ransom has met in the previous books.

Lewis manages to intertwine ideas from for example Greek and Roman mythology with Christian theology; he also manages to combine speculations about life on other planets with classical Christianity. His God is God of all the Universe, whether there are other worlds and other kinds of creatures out there or not.

After Lewis's death, an unfinished manuscript was also found where the character Ransom is involved. This story was never finished by Lewis (He probably started it after the first space novel but abandoned it for other ideas). It contains ideas about time-travelling. As far as it goes, it has been published posthumously in The Dark Tower And Other Stories, together with a few other fragments and short stories, edited and with a preface by his friend Walter Hooper; who has also written a biography about Lewis together with Roger Lancelyn Green.

Another work of fiction is Till We Have Faces. It is a "reworking of the myth of Cupid and Psyche". I read it a couple of times but found it hard to understand. Maybe I should reread it again now when the internet makes it so much easier to look things up.



My own photo, taken through plexiglass window at the zoo.
(Also published not long ago at Soaring through the World)