That was really weird... "Alice Through the Looking Glass" with Kate Beckinsale

I ran into this movie on the New Release DVD shelf at the video store this weekend. I remembered really enjoying a movie by the same name when I was younger, so I thought maybe this was the same one. It was certainly not. After doing a little research, I found that this version was originally a Made for TV special in the UK in 1998. I am guessing it was released onto video and DVD due to the increased popularity of Kate Beckinsale, who has recently appeared in films such as The Aviator. Watching this film was...quite an experience.

The Plot
The movie is based on Lewis Carroll's Through the Looking Glass. The idea is that Alice has already visited Wonderland once, and this is her second trip, although this is never really discussed in this film. The movie begins with adult Alice (Kate Beckinsale) reading the book to a young girl who I think is supposed to be her daughter, but her name is also Alice. Adult Alice and Little Alice get into a discussion of what the world on the other side of the looking glass (mirror) is like, and Adult Alice is sucked through to the other side. Before this, we also saw footage of her nodding off, so perhaps the whole adventure is intended to be perceived as a dream sequence.

Once through the looking glass, Alice picks up the script of Carrol's book, and adheres to it rather faithfully for the most part. The basic premise of the novel and film is that Alice meets the Red Queen (Sian Phillips) and comments on the way the land is set out like a giant chess board. She is given a role as the White Queen's pawn, and told that when she makes her way to the eight square she will become a queen. The rest of the film details her journey through the various squares of the chess board. The passage from one square to the next is shown by walking through a fuzzy oval accompanied by a whooshing noise.

During her journey, Alice comes across most of the characters detailed in Carroll's novel. She meets the rude talking flowers in the garden, Humpty Dumpty, Tweedle Dum and Tweedle Dee, the White Knight (Ian Holm), and others. Readers of the novel will find the dialogue familiar, but abbreviated. In the end, Alice makes it to the eighth square and is able to attend a feast in her honor, which is a peculiar feast which causes her to become intensely frustrated and ends with her crashing back through the looking glass.

The Good
I enjoyed the fact that the movie stuck closely to the plot of Carroll's book, because I always enjoyed it as a child. The characters are interesting and the chess game concept is very creative.

The Bad
Basically, the execution of the plot was set on fast forward. Alice rushes through the story, and her interaction with each character is very brief. As a result, character development of everyone besides Alice is very weak.

It also seems as though essential parts of the story are cut out. In one part, she is having a discussion with the White King and they say they are going to go watch the Lion and the Uniform fight. After they run off to watch the battle, we never see it and the film jumps to Alice leaving that square of the game. This is probably because the film was originally a made for TV movie and has been cut for time.

Kate Beckinsale as Alice is a bizarre concept. She is clearly shown as a mother in the film's early scenes, and then supposedly is a young girl when she steps through the glass. At a couple of points, she says her age is seven and a half. She is clearly NOT seven and a half, she is a grown woman, and the idea that she is supposed to be portraying a young child is just bizarre. In my opinion, the film would have been better if the younger Alice had taken the journey through the glass.

The Ugly
Parts of this film are downright bizarre. For one thing, Alice's hairstyle changes between every single square. One second it is in pigtails, the next up in rags, the next it is pinned back with a barrette. How does this contribute to the plot in any way? I have no idea.

Parts of the movie are just creepy and kind of made me feel like I was on a drug trip of some sort. There is one part where the White Knight is reciting a poem about talking to an old man sitting on a gate and a black and white film with clips of him shaking the man is shown over the narration. Granted, the poem is from the original text of the novel and it is a little odd, but I think maybe it could have been shown in a less disturbing way. While Alice is talking to the different characters, some of them turn back and forth from animals to humans. The footage of the "Jabberwocky" poem is creepy and reminds me of the Blairwitch Project. I think the way this film is shot would be too intense for many children.

Overall...
This was a very weird rendition of "Through the Looking Glass". I was not such a big fan. The entire production felt very rushed, and having a 25 year old woman play Alice was just generally odd. I would not watch this again.

This film is Not Rated.

(By the way, I did find the film I was originally looking for at http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0088693/)