As yet another other-worldly dream-like film comes into being, so does my confusion and almost utter disbelief that movies like this can still be created.
After viewing the mildly post-modern Jim Henson Productions film, “Mirrormask,” it’s pretty clear: mix a storyline seemingly borrowed from the 80’s with all the CGI money you can buy and you can create a bizarro, mind fu*k of a world that translates to both a children’s fairy tale and a stoner’s paradise.
From the minds of writers Neil Gaiman and Dave McKean (with McKean also directing), this movie has all the key essentials of the traditional fairy tale-like classic: a young, imaginative female lead with a lesson to be learned, a fight with the parents, and an ever-so-expected trip down “the rabbit hole.”
In this case, Helena is the young daughter of a circus-owning group of parents. While her father is “living out his dream,” Helena wishes to escape her showbiz life (in which she partakes in as a juggler) and run away to the real world. After a fight pursues about Helena’s selfish ways, her “Mum,” Joanne, falls ill with some “We can’t tell you what is slowly killing her inside because this is supposed to be a fairy tale” disease.
On the eve of Joanne’s surgery, Helena finds herself prancing around a strange new world, shared by both the Queen of Light and the Queen of Darkness. Surely, she must be dreaming! (Or at least that’s what Gaiman and McKean toy with throughout the movie.)
Alongside her new-found friend Valentine, Helena attempts to find the “mirrormask,” which holds the key to regaining the bizarro world’s balance between good and evil.
To avoid sounding completely cynical, I must say I did enjoy it. The film’s half trippy, half artsy look is well enhanced by today’s CGI capabilities, leaving its viewers wishing that “Labyrinth” could have also capitalized on special effects such as these. If only we could ever have a remake of that David Bowie wonder of a movie. (I’m kidding…kind of.)
With the predictable, cheesy elements in line, “Mirrormask” does somewhat transcend the genre, creating characters unlike anything we’ve ever seen before, such as the cat-like, human faced hybrids called Sphinxes that eat you if you get in their way. However, with each step forward, it takes two steps back. (Those killer Sphinxes can be thwarted by tricking them with a riddle). Go ahead, let those eyes roll. Yet, I suppose this must be so, as yes, it is a family film and must cooperate within certain boundaries.
Besides being extremely visual, “Mirrormask” has another thing working in its favor: Stephanie Leonidas as Helena. What could have become the clichéd “Eureka!” moment in which the main character finally realizes what she takes for granted and is sorry for everything she’s done since birth, the movie treats the situation with a little more subtlety. Helena’s relationship with her mother slowly unravels and becomes believable, and with thanks to Leonidas’s performance, becomes almost sincere by the movie’s end.
“Mirrormask” serves multiple purposes: you can laugh at it, or enjoy it, letting your inner-third grader shine through. Either way, no one can deny the optical pleasures this film provides. For visual purposes alone, “Mirrormask” is worth checking out because, hey, even Bowie likes a little cheese every now and then.
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