Film Reviews

MirrorMask

• Rating:
• Director: Dave McKean
• Starring: Gina McKee
• Details: US, 101mins, PG.

Helena (Leonidas) is a 15-year-old who longs to ditch her family of circus entertainers and start a 'normal' life of her own. Her constant battles with her parents take a terrible toll on her mother, who falls ill after another argument, causing Helena to blame herself. On the eve of her mother's surgery, Helena dreams that she is in a strange world full of bizarre creatures and masked inhabitants who are caught up in war between two opposing queens. When the white queen falls ill, Helena learns that only the Mirrormask can save her and takes it upon herself to save the good queen. But soon, Helena wonders whether she is in a dream or something far, far worse.
McKean takes his subtle humour, wonderful weirdness and amazing visuals from his graphic novels and puts it all on the screen. Ditching the usual Jim Henson format of puppetry skills that delighted audiences in Labyrinth and the cult classic Dark Crystal, Mirrormask employs the use of CGI to tell its story and at times the whole affair looks a little too polished (remember Attack Of The Clones?), putting a distance between the audience and what is happening on screen. In saying that, the special effects are something to behold and this is a fantasy story after all. Where Mirrormask fails to shine is the story, as McKean and his co-writer Neil Gaiman suffered from a pick 'n' mix of fantasy fairy tales: Time Bandits, Alice In Wonderland and The Wizard Of Oz all pop up at one time or another. The plot line itself, reportedly, was written day by day while Mirrormask was being shot, and this is sorely evident as it lacks coherent vision.

Review by Gavin Burke