MirrorMask

May 3, 2006

Rated: PG Runtime: 101 min Rating: 3 out of 5 stars

MirrorMask is a beautiful, but somewhat boring movie. This is definitely a case of style over substance.

MirrorMask Helena is a juggler/worker bee in the family circus, literally a circus though one that makes Cirque du Soleil look normal. Like all teenagers she wishes her life were different and in this case she wishes she could run away from the circus and live a normal life. Apparently she’s had this conversation with her mother many times and it’s a bit of a sore subject, so when they get into it and her mother says “you’ll be the death of me”, Helena’s response is “I wish I were.” You just know things are gonna go bad for mom.

A few minutes later just as Mom’s getting ready to go on stage, she collapses.

Ten days later.. Helena has been visiting Mom every day in the hospital and finally tries to apologize, but gets taken out of the room before she really gets to finish. Apparently they have pretty tight visiting rules and patients haven’t begun to assert their rights in England. Around here the nurse would have gotten a dirty look and told to butt the hell out.

Helena blames herself for her Mom’s illness (which is never defined, but cancer is a good guess) and on the evening of her surgery she wakes to find herself in an alternate reality. I should have mentioned that Helena is an artist and spends most of her time drawing some really weird stuff. The alternate reality she ends up in is composed of things that she’s drawn. Personally I think her parents should have her tested for drugs, but I digress..

It’s this alternate world that makes MirrorMask worth watching, it’s really stunning to look at. The visuals were done by The Jim Henson Company and even though it’s digital instead of puppets, it retains a look that’s unique to Henson. And it’s really weird, though I think I mentioned that. There are fish flying in the air, floating giants, f’d up cats and books that fly. But all is not right with this world, and Helena has to fix it.

There’s a white queen, and a black queen. There’s a princess that’s gone missing, and a character named Valentine who’s is perhaps too helpful. On top of this there’s a charm that could set all of this right, but it’s missing.

You get the idea, it’s pretty standard stuff. The problem is with the pacing of the movie, it’s just too slow. Once she switched over to the alternate world at least there are pretty things to look at but even then it can get boring.

If you’ve got something strong to drink then pour a glass and settle in to watch this movie. Otherwise you might want to skip it unless you’re a fan of Henson creations or sci-fi/fantasy in general.

Posted by John | Filed Under 3 Stars, DVD, Dora Bryan, Gina McKee, Jason Barry, PG, Robert Brydon, SciFi, Stephanie Leonidas