Lackluster story dims visually stunning Alice Through the Looking Glass

It’s easy to see why Alice Through the Looking Glass opened this past weekend to a strong No. 2 showing at the box office: Dazzling special effects create a fantastic visual realm. But moviegoers who expect more in a story will probably feel disappointed—or, if like me, a bit sad. As characters traded stale quips, I reflected on Robin Williams’ singular talent to enliven movies with his madcap energy and brilliant ad libs. This film needed him.

After returning to 1875 London from a voyage aboard a cargo ship she captains, 20-year-old Alice (Mia Wasikowska) follows Absolem, now a butterfly, through a looking glass into Underland. She visits the Mad Hatter (Johnny Depp), who is dying of loneliness. But the Mad Hatter has found evidence indicating his family, whom everyone else believes the Jabberwocky killed, might still be alive. The White Queen (Anne Hathaway) suggests Alice can save the Mad Hatter by going back in time to prevent the Jabberwocky’s attack.

Since the Mad Hatter is too sick to help—meaning Depp has little screen time—it’s all up to Alice. To accomplish time travel, she removes a baseball-sized power unit, called a chronosphere, from the Grand Clock. The chronosphere also enlarges into a spherical flying capsule that Alice aviates to different time locales.

The Grand Clock’s guardian, Time (a tame Sacha Baron Cohen), pursues Alice to retrieve the chronosphere. The Red Queen (Helena Bonham Carter) gives chase as well, hoping to reshape a moment in her childhood when her sister, the White Queen, wronged her. The film offers little more than a race against the Grand Clock, which is breaking down without its chronosphere.

There’s plenty to like about the film, though, starting with Bonham Carter, who stands out among a solid cast. Each contemptuous twitch of the eye and spiteful pursing of the lips conveys her noxious, albeit cartoonish, despotism. The film’s spectacular costumes, sets, and special effects might very well earn repeats of the Tim Burton-directed Alice in Wonderland’s 2011 Oscar wins for costume and art direction. (Burton has only producing credits in Alice Through the Looking Glass.) And although a few images might frighten young children, the PG-rated film is otherwise safe for family viewing: It contains little language and no sexuality.

Unfortunately, Alice Through the Looking Glass is yet another film—especially in the family movie genre—upon which the eyes gorge while the mind starves. Except to gather an occasional clue about what’s going on, the audience has no reason to tune into what the characters are saying. Watching Alice Through the Looking Glass is like exploring an otherworldly amusement park while someone reads through a phone book over the loud speakers.

I miss Robin Williams—a real Mad Hatter for whom no one can unwind the clock to save.