Alice Trough the Looking Glass

After leaving Underland and her dear friends Alice has become a fierce ship captain conducting explorations and battles against pirates all over the world.

Upon her return home the dream of doing six impossible things before breakfast is broken as her mother has sold their share on her father’s ship and company, now owned by Alice’s rejected admirer Hamish.

Facing key life choices that go against all of her principles and dreams she is suddenly guided back to Underland through a looking glass. Everyone welcomes her back and tells her the reason for her visit: the Mad Hatter has not been well, he is convinced that his family is still alive and wants Alice to help him find them.

Despite its focus on the noble themes of family, friendship and the passing of time, Alice Through the Looking Glass feels like an unnecessary sequel/prequel. Embellished, and partially saved, by an excellent production design and costumes the film lacks personality in direction, script and performances.

The jokes and non-sense dialogues end up feeling redundant and even the Mad Hatter’s presence is of no relief. The performances feel forced and the storyline is very irregular. It touches on the important topics of feminism and the treatment of supposed female hysteria, but it does so by leaving those plotlines loose.

The concept of Time is used interestingly and cleverly, but the film’s editing and style do not make justice to it, except for the beautiful design of the castle and its characters.

Finally, Alice Through the Looking Glass feels like a dream broken in half as it misses the core of Lewis Carroll’s writing.