---

Alice In Wonderland

***

Stars: Johnny Depp, Helena Bonham Carter, Mia Wasikowska

Director: Tim Burton

Rated: PG

Showing: Liberty Theatre - Saturday 1/6:30/ 9:30pm; Sunday 12/3/6pm; Monday to Thursday 2:30/ 6/8:30pm

Runtime: 108 minutes

Adventure/fantasy/family

Visionary filmmaker Tim Burton delivers his much-anticipated and very loose adaptation of Lewis Carroll's much-loved 1865 novel.

The story sees a 19-year-old Alice (Mia Wasikowska) returning to the magical world she visited as a child - although she does not remember it or its many weird inhabitants - and learns it is her destiny to slay the Jabberwocky and save the land from the tyranny of the wicked Red Queen (Helena Bonham Carter).

Wonderland is the dark and quirky landscape you would expect from Burton, who helmed A Nightmare Before Christmas and Sleepy Hollow.

But he again favours style over substance and the story is not driven by the narrative but by the characters and cinematography.

It also lacks the heart of Carroll's book.

Johnny Depp once again shows off his chameleon-like acting skills to become the eccentric and ghoulish Mad Hatter.

He is barely recognizable as with his orange hair, over-sized eyes and ghostly pallor, all topped off with lurid Victorian dress.

But like his Scottish accent, his likeability comes and goes. The initial pleasure at seeing Depp soon gives way to irritation as you realize that behind the façade there is little to the character - certainly not good dialogue.

The rest of the impressive cast includes Stephen Fry as the Cheshire Cat, Alan Rickman as the smoking caterpillar and Christopher Lee as the Jabberwocky.

Sadly, newcomer Wasikowska - who beat Lindsay Lohan to the role - fails to give Alice any depth.

She has never acted in a feature before and her inexperience is evident - our heroine is flat, dull and unengaging.

Like all Burton films, the movie has a gothic, dark look and may scare young children despite its PG rating.

A few scenes are particularly disturbing, notably a spike being driven through eyeballs.

But there is no denying the visual richness and flawless detail in Burton's Wonderland - it's just debateable whether it can make up for the deficiencies in plot and dialogue, where wacky accents often take the place of actual jokes.

Watch if you liked: Disney's Alice In Wonderland, The Nightmare Before Christmas.

For more information about film times, call 292-7296.

[[In-content Ad]]

---