Alice (2009 Miniseries) [Blu-ray] by Lions Gate

Actors

• Caterina Scorsone
• Andrew Lee Potts
• Matt Frewer
• Philip Winchester
• Tim Curry

Format

• AC-3
• Closed-captioned
• Color
• Dolby
• Widescreen

Editorial Review

Writer-director Nick Willing, who turned The Wizard of Oz on its ear with 2007's Tin Man, takes a similar approach to another childhood classic with Alice, one of the more visually striking and offbeat live-action adaptations of Lewis Carroll's fantasy stories. Willing's Alice (Caterina Scorsone) is a grown woman–and a karate instructor to boot–whose lack of luck in love seems to have finally taken a turn toward the positive with Jack (Philip Winchester). Their idyll is shattered when Jack is abducted, and Alice's search for him leads her to Wonderland–the one visited by Carroll's Alice a century ago, but now overrun by gloom and vice and anachronistic machinery, and lorded over by a Queen of Hearts (Kathy Bates) who kidnaps people from the “real” world to harvest their emotions. Willing's Alice looks impressive, with its richly saturated colors and CGI environment that suggests a world with one foot in Carroll's absurd realm and the other in a futuristic dystopia, and he's abetted by a terrific supporting cast, including Matt Frewer (as the White Knight), Harry Dean Stanton (Caterpillar), Tim Curry (Dodo), and Primeval's Andrew Lee Potts as a sort of glam-rock Mad Hatter. But his script can't match the level of imagination in his direction–Scorsone, a likable actress, is left to wander passively to each scenario–which renders the project another exercise in style over substance. The sole extra is a lightweight commentary track by Willing and Scorsone that is more conversational than informative. –Paul Gaita