Movie Review: Malice in Wonderland

Hey look!  It's the movie review I promised a couple days ago.  Well you know what they say... better late than never.

So for the inaugural !Movie Review! I decided on Malice in Wonderland, a gritty thriller set in --what else could it possibly be-- a place called Wonderland.

!Trailer!

There's been so many Alice in Wonderland adaptations over the years that this film directed by Simon Fellows may seem on surface to be just another pebble on the mountain.  But the fantastical, hazy mood of the movie (almost as if you were the one who had amnesia), keeps viewers on the edge of their seats and questioning the motives of every character.

The film starts off with American Law Student Alice, played by Maggie Grace, running from two well-dressed thugs through London's Underground.  Ever the picture of saintliness, Alice pauses from running for her life and gives a bag lady some change as payment for useless, vague directions.

After frantically running about for a couple more minutes, Alice finally resurfaces only to be hit by a cab driven by a sketchy guy named Whitey.  That's where the fun begins.

"Insanity is not a plea, it's a way of life!" - Harry Hunt

Whitey, portrayed by Danny Dyer, picks up the unconscious Alice from the middle of the road and may have very well have left her there if not for two over-concerned citizens who threaten to call the po-po.  Disgruntled, because he's very late for an important date, Whitey throws Alice in to the back seat like a sack of potatoes.  When Alice awakens and complains of a headache and amnesia, Whitey acts even more questionably by rifling through a bag of drugs to give her some pills ambiguously labeled "For My Head."

The rest of the movie follows Alice through Wonderland and her efforts to remember exactly who she is.  The Wonderland of this film is a much different version than the Disney animated version and is very NC17.  For example, the Queen of Hearts is not a ill-tempered fat woman but an actually flaming, homosexual queen.  You can pretty much guess how the other characters are portrayed by that one example.



Overall I would give this film 4 out of 5 stars and recommend it to anyone who is looking for a "grown-up" film that isn't purely sex or dirty humor.