Alice Through the Looking Glass (1998)

Once I started to watch this movie, it immediately became apparent that the director assumed the audience read the book first. I would think any one who never read the lesser known classic, would be totally lost.The film, for the most part, did good job sticking to the books story line, though they dropped some stuff, and added others.The weirdest part was casting an adult actor to play the role of a child ... "I am 7 and 6 months old", said the 20+ year old .The interactions never seem right with a "childish" adult.For the most part, the looking glass world looks about what I imagined it to be from the book, though things were changed around a bit.The oddest part was, one of the Tweedles looking like the guy from A Clockwork Orange. Over all, it's an all right movie ( if the watcher first read the book ), geared more for younger folks.Definitely worth a watch.

This is apparently a made for TV movie that was broadcast on British TV in the late 1990's. It is just now being sold on DVD in the US. It is interesting for fans of Kate Beckinsale to see some of her work before she became a household name in the US. The dialogue between the characters and the set design and costumes are the strengths here. A blond Beckinsale, who appears to have been in the early stages of her real life pregnancy, makes an inquisitive Alice as she meets more and more interesting characters. Beckinsale conveys the impudence and innocence of her character well. The movie is further enhanced by a top notch British supporting cast.

I taped this for my four year old daughter, who is obsessed with the Disney version and was watching it twice a day if I let her. This was a charming, wonderful change. The actress playing Alice is fantastic, she is really like the character, even though she is an adult. I was shocked that she was also Darlene in "Brokedown Palace" ...she really can play a wide range. This movie is very aesthetically beautiful to watch. It's fun watching humans play the animals and picking out who is whom.

Without infringing on the IMDb guidelines, can I just suggest that this film is a disappointing visualisation of the greatest book ever written? Lewis Carroll's masterpiece is too mercurial to depict - taken out of its literary context, its ideas, incidents and characters simply don't make sense. Its humour and traumas are literary and philosophical. The filmmakers fail to adapt forms, instead relying on swathes of dialogue.Different film styles are used to try and disrupt normality, a la Carroll, but the incoherent script, uncertain acting and muffled diction only grate. There is no sense of narrative momentum (even if only to be subverted), and targets are missed because it is unclear what they are. Changing the book's view from that of a child to a woman renders the whole exercise redundant. Graver still is the unwillingness to trust the audience - the dream/reality ambiguity, crucial to the book's meaning, is too clearcut. The colours and set design can be extremely beautiful though.