Opening

73% World War Z Jun 21
78% Monsters University Jun 21
61% The Bling Ring Jun 21
60% Maniac Jun 21
100% A Hijacking Jun 21
66% Unfinished Song Jun 21
100% The Attack Jun 21
—— The Haunting of Helena Jun 21

Top Box Office

55% Man of Steel $116.6M
85% This Is the End $20.7M
50% Now You See Me $11.0M
71% Fast & Furious 6 $9.6M
38% The Purge $8.3M
34% The Internship $7.1M
62% Epic $6.3M
87% Star Trek Into Darkness $6.3M
11% After Earth $4.1M
78% Iron Man 3 $3.0M

Coming Soon

—— How To Make Money Selling Drugs Jun 26
—— White House Down Jun 28
—— The Heat Jun 28
56% I'm So Excited! Jun 28

MirrorMask (2005)

tomatometer

54

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.

43

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.

audience

75

liked it
Average Rating: 3.6/5
User Ratings: 70,413

My Rating

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

Jan 10, 2006

$0.8M

Samuel Goldwyn Films - Official Site External Icon

Watch It Now

Cast

ADVERTISEMENT

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.

October 28, 2005 Full Review Source: Toronto Star
Toronto Star
Top Critic IconTop Critic

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.

October 28, 2005 Full Review Source: Globe and Mail
Globe and Mail
Top Critic IconTop Critic

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.

October 27, 2005 Full Review Source: Arizona Republic
Arizona Republic
Top Critic IconTop Critic

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.

October 21, 2005
Philadelphia Inquirer
Top Critic IconTop Critic

A 30-minute idea wrapped in a 100-minute movie. It's a jewel box filled with cubic zirconia.

October 21, 2005 Full Review Source: Orlando Sentinel
Orlando Sentinel
Top Critic IconTop Critic

The narrative is simplistic and lacking in energy, and the characters are sketched instead of fully formed.

October 21, 2005 Full Review Source: ReelViews
ReelViews
Top Critic IconTop Critic

Mirrormask eventually establishes itself as an thoroughly interminable piece of work that substitutes endless creativity for context and character development...

February 1, 2012 Full Review Source: Reel Film Reviews
Reel Film Reviews

Dense, dreamlike fantasy isn't for every kid.

December 15, 2010 Full Review Source: Common Sense Media
Common Sense Media

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.

January 5, 2009 Full Review Source: Apollo Guide
Apollo Guide

MirrorMask proves that a movie can be brilliant and awful at the same time.

July 18, 2008 Full Review Source: eFilmCritic.com
eFilmCritic.com

This one-of-a-kind fantasy film may be seen as a classic someday, possibly quite soon.

February 7, 2006 Full Review Source: MTV

...one of those movies that might be improved immensely by the consumption of certain mood-altering substances.

December 12, 2005 Full Review Source: Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
Arkansas Democrat-Gazette

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.

December 5, 2005 Full Review Source: Urban Cinefile
Urban Cinefile

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.

November 7, 2005
Commercial Appeal (Memphis, TN)

"MirrorMask" may prove fascinating for fans of McKean and Gaiman, but I was left chilled and irritated.

November 7, 2005 Full Review Source: Sympatico.ca

[Director Dave] McKean's pacing is abominable but, more importantly, he doesn't spend enough time building his characters.

November 4, 2005 Full Review Source: Reno Gazette-Journal

An impressive sheen on some familiar themes.

November 3, 2005 Full Review Source: Las Vegas Weekly
Las Vegas Weekly

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.

October 28, 2005 Full Review Source: Jam! Movies
Jam! Movies

None of the exceptionally designed characters have a soul that stirs the senses.

October 27, 2005
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

This strange, imaginative children's adventure has a fantastic visual sense that looks like nothing you've seen

October 27, 2005 Full Review Source: Shadows on the Wall
Shadows on the Wall

Audience Reviews for MirrorMask

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.
June 6, 2008
jmanard52

Super Reviewer

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.
June 8, 2007
CloudStrife84
Mike S

Super Reviewer

No quotes approved yet for MirrorMask. Logged in users can submit quotes.

Discussion Forum

There are no discussion threads for MirrorMask yet.

What's Hot On RT

24 Frames
24 Frames

Pictures from a zombie nation

Blue Jasmine
Blue Jasmine

Woody Allen in San Francisco

<em>The Hobbit</em>
The Hobbit

See the Desolation of Smaug trailer!

Summer Scorecard
Summer Scorecard

Where does This Is the End rank?

Latest News on MirrorMask

June 28, 2007:
Pseudo-Celeb "Hellboy 2" Set Reports Posted
Pictures and on set commentary from the "Hellboy 2" production are online...and from the...
June 1, 2007:
RT-UK Exclusive: Send Us Your Questions for Neil Gaiman
The Sandman, Stardust, Anansi Boys, American Gods, the list goes on. They're all the work of the...
January 31, 2007:
Pic Explosion! "Underdog," "Stardust" and "Postal," Oh My
What do Uwe Boll, Neil Gaiman and Underdog have in common? Not a blessed thing, obviously, aside...

Foreign Titles

  • The Mirror Mask (FR)
Help | About | Jobs | Critics Submission | API | Licensing | Mobile