| |
mirrormask
| | |
MIRRORMASK (2005)
Director: Dave McKean
Starring: Stephanie Leonidas, Gina McKee, Rob Brydon, Jason Barry, Dora Bryan, Stephen Fry, Robert Llewellyn, Andy Hamilton
Reviewed by Jeremy Silman
Watson Scale rating (0 being worst and 6 being perfect): 5.5
This is a film that created huge rifts between reviewers. On the
negative side you had the "It needed a stronger story!" group. The
name-calling group ("Unoriginal!" "Banal!" "Boring!" "Confusing!").
And, of course, we also got the ubiquitous "Why?" group ("Why are there
stone giants floating in the park?").
The thumbs up crowd thought it fun, original, magical, and marveled at its riveting effects and visionary art.
The story seemed straightforward: A 15-year-old girl (Stephanie
Leonidas as Helena) works in her family's circus as a juggler. However,
like all teens, she rebels at the nomadic life this entails. Thus she
seeks refuge in mood swings, anger at her mother and father, and
drawing odd images that decorate her room. When her mother becomes
extremely ill, she feels guilt and retreats to an amazing fantasy world
(or actually enters one -- you can interpret this in different ways).
Can she escape from it and enter "reality," or is she to be forever
trapped in her mind's own fever dream?
This seems to be a very strong story to me, but those crazy "needs a
stronger story" people just aren't happy without their daily glass of
roughage and dose of story-raves.
The name-calling group (Unoriginal!" "Banal!" "Boring!" "Confusing!")
seem way off base in this case, and most likely were referring to their
own reviews rather than the movie.
This leaves us with the "Why?" group. "Why are there stone giants
floating in the park?" Why does any dream (or fantasy world) have
anything in it? I could impose a long lecture by Dr. Freud on my
readers, but I think shunning the "Why" crowd is the best answer to
their inane question.
The basic story I've outlined is as old as humanity itself. A no frills
version might interest teenage girls or their parents, but most adults
would prefer to spend time on something else. Fortunately, it's the
frills that stand out and leave the audience gasping in wonder. Here
are visions never before made available on film. Cities only walked
through in nightmares. And surreal vistas of such grandeur that anyone
of any age will feel something akin to awe.
In a way, MIRRORMASK is a vastly improved, and modernized, WIZARD OF
OZ. Both films feature a teen female leaving this world for a far more
fantastic one. Both boast top quality effects for their time. Both find
"alien" characters residing in their fever dream landscape that are
reminiscent of family and friends from the real world. Both feature the
girl trying desperately to leave the "odd" place they've ended up in.
Both have to face an all-powerful dark witch/queen. And both,
ultimately, end with the once petulant teenager realizing that there
really is no place like home.
The WIZARD OF OZ, of course, is the far more innocent movie of the two.
But things now aren't what they were then, and these terrifying times
force the modern teen to think much deeper, darker, terrifying
thoughts. MIRRORMASK introduces us to a form of vertigo in its real
world, and makes that sense of eternal darkness and ruptured despair
even greater when Helena seeks emotional salvation in fantasy.
If Dr. Freud was still among us, he might say that these dark and
terrifying and confusing landscapes are actually the teenage years
themselves, and our escape from them (finding our way home to the real
world) is our ascendance into adulthood. But to me, such conjecture is
all hogwash. You can manipulate the meaning of MIRRORMASK in many ways,
but no matter what mindset you're coming from (or message you wish to
find), we can all agree that this film is a startling piece of eye
candy. MIRRORMASK unabashedly whispers of worlds within worlds, and
triumphantly demonstrates the depths of human imagination in a way that
few movies have ever done before.
[For those that would like a taste of what
MIRRORMASK has to offer, check out this scene from the movie (featuring an
amazing rendition of the old classic song CLOSE TO YOU) on YouTube: MIRRORMASK ACID VERSION OF
CLOSE TO YOU]
| | Copyright © 2007 Jeremy Silman |
|
|
|
|
|
| | |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
