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Dreamchild
UK 1985
produced by
Rick McCallum, Kenith Trodd, Verity Lambert (executive), Dennis Potter (executive) for PfH, Thorn Emi
directed by Gavin Millar
starring Carol Browne, Ian Holm, Peter Gallagher, Caris Corfman, Nicola Cowper, Jane Asher, Amelia Shankley, Imogen Boorman, Emma King, Rupert Wainwright, Roger Ashton-Griffiths, James Wilby, Shane Rimmer, Peter Whitman, Ken Campbell, William Hootkins, Jeffrey Chiswick, Pat Starr, Johnny M, Alan Shearman, Danny Brainin, Sam Douglas, Peter Banks, Scott Hoxby, Ron Berglas, Ron Travis, Thomasine Heiner, Olivier Pierre, Tony Mansell, Ron Mueck, Steve Whitmire, Karen Prell, Michael Sundin, Michael Walter, and the voices of Fulton Mackay, Alan Bennett, Julie Walters, Tony Haygarth, Frank Middlemass
written by Dennis Potter, incorporating portions of Lewis Carroll's Alice in Wonderland, music by Stanley Myers, creature effects by Jim Henson's Creature Shop
Alice in Wonderland
review by
Mike Haberfelner
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Available on DVD! To buy, click on link(s) below and help keep this site afloat (commissions earned) |
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In 1932, Alice Hargreaves (Coral Browne), close to 80 years old, is
invited to the USA to receive honorary scholarship at Columbia University
in honour of and at the centenary of Lewis Carroll (Ian Holm), by then
long deceased - and the newspapers go crazy about her. Now why should this
be such a big story? Because Alice Hargreaves (born Liddell), when she was
10 (and played by Amelia Shankley) was the inspiration for Lewis Carroll's
world famous Alice in Wonderland, which makes her a star at least
to American audiences. Unemployed newspaperman Jack Dolan (Peter
Gallagher) is quick to take the old woman, unaccustomed to American
popular culture, under his wing and get her some lucrative radio deals ...
taking a share of 20% of course. Alice though is not the cute little
girl Lewis Carrol was infatuated by and probably fell in love with 70
years earlier but a disillusioned eccentric who's ill-mannered most of the
time, and she takes out her moods on her companion young Lucy (Nicola
Cowper) mostly, who, coming from an orphanage, depends on her job at
Alice's, which is why she never speaks up ... until she falls in love with
Jack - and vice versa - which gives her the strength to stand her own
ground, while Jack learns there's more than only money ... and Alice,
being forced to relive her past on this here trip and remembering scenes
from Alice in Wonderland, becomes a better person as well ... The
best thing about this movie first: Jim Henson's creatures are simply
wonderful, so much so that one can only wish this was an actual adaptation
of Alice in Wonderland rather than a true story period piece - and
here's the problem with the movie: the "true story" that is told
isn't all that interesting, the parts with old Alice are pretty schmaltzy
and try to hammer across the message "stay true to your inner
child" a bit too bluntly, while the "love story" between
young Alice and Lewis Carroll can't decide which way to go it seems,
either it is about a circa 50 year old man (Ian Holm was 53 when this was
filmed and looks it, yet Lewis Carrol was a mere 20 years older than Alice
so would have been 30 when Alice was 10, which is even pointed out in the
film) in love with a 10 year old, or depicting the actual points of
inspiration for his most famous novel (which there is precious little of
in this film). Now all of this results in a film that might have some
great creatures and is rather well-filmed and acted, but for the most part
it's rather boring ... By the way, writer Dennis Potter tackled
the same subject (the story of Alice Liddell and Lewis Carroll and the
creation of Alice in Wonderland) 20 years earlier in the episode Alice
of the BBC-series
The
Wednesday Play (not to be confused with the episode Alice
in Wonderland [1966] of the same series).
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review © by Mike Haberfelner
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Robots and rats,
demons and potholes,
cuddly toys and
shopping mall Santas,
love and death and everything in between,
Tales to Chill
Your Bones to
is all of that.
Tales to Chill
Your Bones to -
a collection of short stories and mini-plays
ranging from the horrific to the darkly humourous,
from the post-apocalyptic
to the weirdly romantic,
tales that will give you a chill and maybe a chuckle,
all thought up by
the twisted mind of
screenwriter and film reviewer
Michael Haberfelner.
Tales to Chill
Your Bones to
the new anthology by
Michael Haberfelner
Out now from
Amazon!!! |
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amazon.de
eThaiCD.com
find Dreamchild at adultvideouniverse.com