MirrorMask (2005)
Average Rating: 5.8/10
Reviews Counted: 89
Fresh: 48 | Rotten: 41
While visually dazzling, there isn't enough story to hang all the fancy effects on.
Average Rating: 5.7/10
Critic Reviews: 28
Fresh: 12 | Rotten: 16
While visually dazzling, there isn't enough story to hang all the fancy effects on.
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Average Rating: 3.6/5
User Ratings: 70,413
Movie Info
Celebrated sci-fi writer Neil Gaiman, who created the Sandman series, scripted this visually adventurous fantasy. Helena (Stephanie Leonidas) is a 15-year-old girl who has spent nearly her entire life on the road, traveling with her parents Joanne and Morris (Gina McKee and Rob Brydon), who make a living as circus performers. One night, Helena wishes for a quieter and more stable life, only to panic when her mother falls seriously ill, ending up in the hospital. Afraid she's caused her mother's
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Cast
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Jason Barry
Valentine -
Rob Brydon
Morris Campbell / Prime... -
Stephanie Leonidas
Helena / Anti-Helena -
Gina McKee
Joanne / Queen of Light... -
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MirrorMask Trailer & Photos
All Critics (100) | Top Critics (31) | Fresh (48) | Rotten (41) | DVD (19)
Could be Exhibit A for anyone arguing the case that modern filmmaking lacks a strong sense of story.
Top CriticLeonidas walks this tightrope quite engagingly, showing us a girl on the cusp of womanhood, torn between two competing needs -- to become an adult, to remain a child, to vilify, to revere.
McKean's inexperience as a director trips the film. There is so much going on that the viewer can't take in all the imagery, and McKean's devotion to his skewed vision slows the story to a crawl.
Too long, and too rich, for its own good, but clearly Gaiman and McKean were bursting with ideas. Those ideas fly all over the place, sometimes landing with a thunk, but more often taking the breath away.
A 30-minute idea wrapped in a 100-minute movie. It's a jewel box filled with cubic zirconia.
The narrative is simplistic and lacking in energy, and the characters are sketched instead of fully formed.
Mirrormask eventually establishes itself as an thoroughly interminable piece of work that substitutes endless creativity for context and character development...
Dense, dreamlike fantasy isn't for every kid.
The story is interesting, in a twisted fairytale sort of way, but the novelty of this dream world does eventually wear off, and we're left checking our watches.
MirrorMask proves that a movie can be brilliant and awful at the same time.
This one-of-a-kind fantasy film may be seen as a classic someday, possibly quite soon.
...one of those movies that might be improved immensely by the consumption of certain mood-altering substances.
What a disappointment! The greatest fantasy novels and films are products of the unconscious - they have the authority of visions, glimpsed though imperfectly understood. But the creators of MirrorMask remain all too wide awake.
A wonder of imaginative design and a failure of imaginative storytelling; after 101 minutes of this, you feel like a starving man being taunted with a Faberge egg.
"MirrorMask" may prove fascinating for fans of McKean and Gaiman, but I was left chilled and irritated.
[Director Dave] McKean's pacing is abominable but, more importantly, he doesn't spend enough time building his characters.
An impressive sheen on some familiar themes.
It is so fresh, so bold and so fantastical on the visual plane that it seems to re-invent the language of dreams and widen the possibilities of fantasy storytelling.
None of the exceptionally designed characters have a soul that stirs the senses.
This strange, imaginative children's adventure has a fantastic visual sense that looks like nothing you've seen
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Movie: ID: 8272 Title: MirrorMask Release Date: 2005-09-30 00:00:00.0 MPAA: 2 Status: 1
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Foreign Titles
- The Mirror Mask (FR)
