Mirrormask (DVD)
Director:
Dave McKean
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from Amazon.com
If
you're looking for an weird and twisted fantasy movie to rent,
might I recommend this new picture from Jim Henson Productions
and director Dave McKean. Here's the official summary:
MirrorMask
centers on Helena, a 15 year old girl in a family of circus entertainers,
who often wishes she could run off and join real life. After a
fight with her parents about her future plans, her mother falls
quite ill and Helena is convinced that it is all her fault. On
the eve of her mother's major surgery, she dreams that she is
in a strange world with two opposing queens, bizarre creatures,
and masked inhabitants. All is not well in this new world - the
white queen has fallen ill and can only be restored by the MirrorMask,
and it's up to Helena to find it. But as her adventures continue,
she begins to wonder whether she's in a dream, or something far
more sinister.
This
movie is filled with interesting and quirky characters both at
the circus and in the dream world, that really give a sense of
mystery and insanity to the world born from Helena's own artwork.
One thing I love about it is how Helena never really questions
the world she finds herself in, but simply goes along with it,
from escaping the shadow by riding a book to thwarting a sphinx's
riddles with one of her own (that Bilbo Baggins might have been
proud of).
One
of my favorite sequences comes a bit over half-way through the
movie and involves one of the sweetly creepiest renditions of
Close to You I can ever remember hearing.
Overall,
this is a bit like a darker, more twisted Alice in Wonderland
or Labrynth and if you liked those, be sure to give this one a
try.
Buy
from Amazon.com
