Having been a huge fan of the source material it is based on, and also a fan of the clips I have seen elsewhere of Jan Svankmajer's work, I am surprised that it took me this long to finally get around to watching Alice. But it did, and here we are.
Kristýna Kohoutová plays Alice, a young girl who ends up going on an adventure that will be quite familiar to those who have read the most famous tale from Lewis Carroll. Quite familiar, but not overly familiar, because this is the tale filtered through the alternately dreamy and nightmarish vision of Svankmajer.
While not for everyone, which is a phrase I consider redundant every time I use it (but cannot think of a decent replacement), Alice is certainly worth the time and attention of those who know what kind of vision Svankmajer wants to deliver. It's a strange and decaying world, one in which most of the creations are barely held together, but that actually feels nicely in line with the text being adapted to the screen. What is Alice if not this strange and curious lifeforce upending and alarming the citizens of a wonderland always on the very edge of collapsing in on itself?
The stop-motion work may be the highlight of the film, and everything is informed by it, but Kohoutová does well to perform in the middle of such a strange and surreal selection of set-pieces. She feels as if she's performing, but that, once again, feels true to the spirit of the story. Alice is a character who is very imaginative, and her way of speaking, both to herself and to those around her, is often in a performative manner. She is either trying to convince herself of what she is seeing around her, or she is trying to convince others of her relative wisdom.
While this may not be the Alice's Adventures In Wonderland that comes to mind when you think of the story, it is a surprisingly faithful and brilliant interpretation. Every frame feels as if it was carefully considered and crafted with a monumental effort, which is both a positive and a negative (because the Carroll tale feels somehow easy and effortless), and I would certainly put this near the very top of any list ranking the movie adaptations of this timeless classic.
Drink the potion, eat the snacks, nibble on both sides of the mushroom, and spend time with the characters who don't seem to make sense until you figure out the context of the conversations. Many films try to show you Alice in Wonderland. Svankmajer comes very close to actually taking the viewer all the way down the rabbit hole.
9/10
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