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
illness, Helena slips into an alternate reality known as the Dark Lands, where nearly everything behaves differently and all is ruled by the Queen of Light and the Prime Minister (also played by McKee and Brydon). As it happens, the Queen of Shadows' daughter, who bears an uncanny resemblance to Helena, has gone missing; the Queen of Light has fallen unconscious as a result; and both queens' minders are looking for the child. As Helena struggles to make her way back to her own world to help her own mother, she discovers the Queen of Shadows' daughter has taken her place. Helena is aided in her journey by a gifted juggler named Valentine (Jason Barry), and together they seek to access a magic charm which will return everyone to the land where they belong. MirrorMask was produced by the Jim Henson Company, with most of the sets and many of the characters created using digital-effects technology. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi
Leonidas 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.
Mirrormask eventually establishes itself as an thoroughly interminable piece of work that substitutes endless creativity for context and character development...
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.
This is a really splendid visual feast. Neil Gaiman's story, Jim Hensons Company and Davie Mckea produce a wonderful feast for the eyes with a nifty little fantasy story. Well done.
Way too much surrealism for my taste, but I gotta give credit to the creators for making something so incredibly imaginative. I really wanted to like it more than I did, but the visual style just wasn't my cup of tea. In fact, I was rather annoyed and put off by it. Nice performance by Stephanie Leonidas though. The
lines flowed so naturally from her tongue that it's hard to believe she was actually acting. It's strange that I haven't seen her in any other films, because her talent deserves a lot more recognition. Either way, Leonidas' wonderful charisma was unfortunately not enough to save me from boredom, and it's a miracle I got through this without falling asleep. That isn't to say it's awful, because I'm sure there are a lot of people out there who like it. I just prefer fantasy that is more reality-based, as opposed to bizarre and dream-like.
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