Dreamchild

source: Dreamchild

The relationship between 10-year-old Alice Liddell, the young girl for whom "Alice's Adventures In Wonderland" was written, and Rev. Charles Dodgson a.k.a. Lweis Carroll, the book's author, is explored in this thought-provoking film. The former Alice Liddell, now Alice Hargreaves, is invited by Columbia University to give a speech on the centennial of Dodgson's / Carroll's birth. She meets a reporter who becomes her agent and romances her assistant. Meanwhile, she is haunted by childhood memories of her time spent with Mr. Dodgson. A mostly good script by Dennis Potter only disappoints when focusing on the romance. The excellent cast makes up for the few shortcomings. Amelia Shankley debuts as the young Alice Liddell, and gives a fine performance. She later appeared in a three part adaptation of A Little Princess (1986) and Red Riding Hood (1988). Imogen Boorman, who plays older sister Lorina, went on to co-star in Hellbound: Hellraiser II (1988).

The fate of movies is a mystery. Why should it be that certain mediocre films draw crowds large enough to wrap twice around the block, only to be just as soon forgotten, while others, marvelous films, never catch on at all, and end up lost through decades, waiting only to be rediscovered one day, when a DVD edition suddenly blesses them with a second life? DreamChild is a monumental work of art that rests on another monumental work. Of course, it helps that as a kid, I was fascinated by Lewis Carrol's famous adventures of Alice in Wonderland and Thru the Looking Glass, as well as the wild and often creepy, psychedelic universe beautifully rendered by artist Sir John Tenniel. It's worth noting that, to this day, we owe Tenniel most of the representations we have of the worlds and characters described by Carrol. DreamChild a beautiful film in so many respects. Deeply moving and inviting us, the viewer, to reflect upon the true forces that guide the murky, and sometimes tortuous process from which art is born. The screenplay by Dennis Potter is airtight, witty, often funny, but also dark and complex. Ian Holm as the Reverend Dodgson delivers one of the two best performances of his life (The Sweet Hereafter being the other). Curiously, both deal with the agonizing pain of holding back. Even little Amelia Shankley, who plays young Alice Lydell, the muse throughout the film, is deeply haunting and complex, juggling the tricky emotions that carry the entire picture through to its resolution. This was a fairly low budget production, shot entirely in the UK, but Roger Hall's masterful art direction can convince even a savvy movie buff that he is watching a pricey period picture set in New York City's Great Depression era. Gavin Millar, the director, is mature enough to let his camera witness a powerful story without artifice. There is not one bad choice in this picture, right down to a gorgeous musical score by Stanley Myers. Finally, Jim Henson and his team of artists recreated the wildest and most beloved characters of Alice in Wonderland as animatronic puppets which, thirty years on, hold up perfectly and allow the film to soar with its unique, organic, and at times theatrical charm. I saw this picture in New York City, in 1986, when it received a limited release, and I recall being instantly enchanted by it. I had to accept a poor videotape copy for years and years, until one of the film's crew members in the UK was kind enough to obtain a better copy for me, which I have cherished. But now, a DVD-R has been released in the film's original 1:85/1 ratio and I was recently able to watch it all again, at last in a perfect presentation. DreamChild is a great big film which only had a small life, but it is worth discovering on DVD. It's a picture that could well stay with you for the rest of your life. It did with me.

The Rev. Charles Dodgson must have been an enigmatic figure. Quiet and withdrawn when in the company of adults, he metamorphosed into a riveting teller of stories, riddles and anecdotes when a child was listening. "Dreamchild" addresses this remarkable facet of his personality in a way that leaves the viewer truly in awe. Augmented by Jim Henson's Creatures, which are fantastic and amazing, they are the perfect foil for the delicate nuances of the Rev. Dodgson's love for Alice. Coral Brown should have gotten the Oscar for this role; she is devastating as the dying, repressed but ultimately enlightened Alice. Her realization that Dodgson truly loved her in a pure, reverent way is a masterpiece of acting. The film resonates with the power of Brown's performance, Amelia Shankley's bravura acting as the young Alice, and Ian Holm's as Dodgson. I couldn't imagine another actor in any of these roles, and that's as high a tribute as I can give. Watching Holm's face as he listens to Alice sing, without her knowledge, almost breaks your heart. In a movie this fine, I can only find one drawback, and that's the subplot of the modern love story between the reporter and her maid. But it's a small quibble. This film deserves to be seen again and again, as I've watched it.

The central story is excellent. Coral Browne, Amelia Shankley and, of course, Ian Holm are all excellent. Too much time is spent is spent on Alice's assistant, Lucy and reporter Jack Dolan. In my opinion, they're uninteresting and irrelevant. Although many people apparently like the Jim Henson creations for this movie, I find them inferior copies of the Tenniel illustrations and even more poorly "operated". There has been much discussion about the question of Dodgson's feelings for Alice. One thing has been left out of these discussions or perhaps reviewers are not aware of. Even if Dodgson's feelings were sexual, that would not have been regarded as especially inappropriate in Victorian England. The Victorians might have had what we would consider repressed attitudes towards sex, but that did not extend to age differences. The age of legal consent was 12 and men often married girls much younger than themselves. The only real impropriety from the Victorian viewpoint was that Dodgson wasn't considered the social equal of the Liddell family.

In 1932, 79-year-old Alice Hargreaves, a no-nonsense sort from England traveling with her timid female assistant, sails for New York City to receive an honorary degree from Columbia University; the school is celebrating the centenary of author Charles L. Dodgson, aka Lewis Carroll, whose literary masterpiece "Alice in Wonderland" was inspired by Hargreaves when she was but a precocious child. Impeccably-produced and designed on a limited budget, this curious drama mixes fact and fiction with a light hand...and yet, it rarely takes off emotionally. Coral Browne's adult Alice reexamines her lazy childhood days--as well as her past and present states of mind while interacting with Carroll's nonsensical creations (courtesy Jim Henson's Creature Shop)--but screenwriter Dennis Potter includes no poetry of his own in the dialogue. There are lovely moments (particularly the finale at Columbia and its tag), strong performances from Browne and Ian Holm (as the stammering Reverend Dodgson), and the film does improve slowly after a very creaky start. ** from ****

Dreamchild is a beautiful and tender exploration of the (non-sexual) love of children which prompted the Rev. Charles Dodgson (AKA Lewis Carroll) to write _Alice in Wonderland_. The story begins in 1932 as 80 year old Alice Hargreaves (nee Liddell, the inspiration for the fictional Alice) and her timid personal maid Lucy reach New York City to participate in a centenary celebration of Dogson's birth. Coral Browne is outstanding as Mrs. Hargreaves and Ian Holm plays Dodgson perfectly. Amelia Shankley is also excellent as the young Alice, seen in flashbacks and "dream" sequences involving characters from the book. The puppets, for lack of a better word, created by Jim Henson's Creature Shop (??), are faithful recreations of the original Tenniel drawings and, for the most part, much of their dialog is adapted from the book and wonderfully integrated into the film. Besides the main plot there are several sub-plots, and the clashes between the upper class British woman and the rude, intrusive press are quite amusing, especially so when one considers how much worse the "news media" have become. The film touches on the plight of Lucy, a docile servant to Mrs. Hargreaves who worries about her future after Mrs. Hargreaves "meets my maker," as she puts it. Luckily for Lucy there is the American reporter Jack, who falls in love with Lucy and eventually convinces her it is not solely his desire for money ("You can tell when he's talking about money. His lips go all wet.") which draws him to the two women. Through the flashbacks and dream sequences we see little Alice and Mrs. Hargreaves in various situations which shed more light on her friendship with Mr. Dodgson, whom she has almost completely forgotten as an old woman. Many details of the plot are taken directly from Alice in Wonderland and Dodgson's diaries and letters, making it an even greater pleasure for those familiar with his life. Initially Mrs. Hargreaves is terrified of dredging up long-forgotten memories but slowly comes to understand, accept, and express true appreciation for the love Dodgson felt for her, and many other children throughout his life. This beautiful and moving film didn't receive the recognition it deserves due to the timing of its release, which unfortunately coincided in the USA with the witch-hunts and hysteria of the baseless "child-care Satanic abuse" cases popping up all over the country. Dodgson was, by most standards, an unusual man whose life-long stutter and natural shyness made him uncomfortable with many adults, but with small children he worked magic. He was one of the first amateur photographers and some have interpreted his penchant for taking pictures of children "au naturel" as an indication of pedophilia. Anyone who has read his diaries or letters knows he was most scrupulous about taking these types of pictures and virtually never did so without receiving parental permission, often having a parent present during the session. Charles Dodgson loved children in a pure and non-sexual way and that love gave us two of the world's classics in children's literature. The film makes this perfectly clear and is a tribute to the genius and gentleness of this kind, loving, and brilliant man.

This is one of the worst films I've seen in a long time, not helped by the fact that I'm quite a rabid Alice in Wonderland fan. Three specifics goaded my curiosity - Ian Holm is a wonderful actor and I've rarely seen a film with him that wasn't excellent, Jim Henson puppets always make a movie better, and hey, it's Alice in Wonderland, how could it go wrong?? Well, here's the answer: let's start with the utter lack of a point. Alice Hargreaves is elderly and visits the New World for the first time to give a talk about Charles Dodgeson aka Lewis Carroll on his centenary. This is where the plot ends. She has visions of her past with the Rev. Dodgson (fabulously played by Ian Holm, and the only worthwhile parts of the film), nightmarish dreams/fantasies with eerie Wonderland-muppets (not Jim Henson's finest hour - some of them were kind of cool, but they're rather overdone. In the end, the puppets and puppet scenes are nothing but irritating - and the voices are all basically the same. The biggest problem with the puppets was that they lacked identity; there was no sense of their essence - their sense of 'character' from the book...) all mixed in with her road trip to New York. She's accompanied by Lucy, supposedly an orphan under the care of Mrs. Hargreaves, whose only purpose in the film is to create a love story with the conniving and pestering former reporter, Jack Dolan, played by Peter Gallagher. I can't *stand* Peter Gallagher to begin with, and this character doesn't do anything to assuage that dislike. The character serves little purpose; there's no real reason for his existence. He cons his way in to speak to Hargreaves, though he's no longer a reporter and never uses his 'scoops' to regain his position, then he gets under Alice's wing and becomes her agent, helping her to make money by using her 'name'. This goes against Alice's character, who doesn't really care much about money or fame -she's not exactly poorly off and she never saw the reason for her fame anyhow, yet she succumbs to Gallagher's persuasion. And underneath all of this, Jack Dolan somehow seduces young Lucy and they fall in love, yet Dolan has absolutely no redeeming qualities and is obviously out for himself only, yet suddenly he becomes a charismatic and kind-hearted guy? I don't buy it, and can't see how Lucy could possibly fall for him, even by Hollywood standards. The film is pointless, unbelievable and poorly paced. It's too dark (visually, not in nature) and lacks any of the 'Alice' character and spirit. The fun fantasy is gone, as are the puns and humour. The only bright and light-hearted moments are the scenes in the past with Alice and the Rev. The point of this is to showcase how Alice 'now' is a bitter and lonely old woman and yearns for Alice 'then' who was young and naive and happy. But without the wonderful and fantastic qualities of the Alice stories to back it up, the movie has little to stand on. My suggestion is to go read Stephanie Bolster's 'White Stone', play the Alice video game, watch the Alice in Wonderland animated video, watch Miyuki-Chan in Wonderland, read the two Lewis Carroll novels! ANYTHING but this film, you WILL be disappointed. 3/10.

What a strange movie this is. Is it supposed to be a cute fantasy (with clever Jim Henson puppets)? Or an expose/biography? The latter doesn't seem to be true, since there is a disclaimer at the end of the credits denying that any of the characters are real. Does anyone know whether ANY of the events of "old Alice's" life have any basis in fact? What I have read about Dodgson does indicate that he may have had an unhealthy obsession with young girls, but no evidence that he was an actual pedophile. I was afraid that Dennis Potter, who has shown in films like BRIMSTONE & TREACLE that he can wallow in the worst forms of human behavior, would turn Dodgson into a Victorian Michael Jackson (Wonderland/Neverland?). But Dodgson is a very sympathetic character, and the movie never descends into the dark side of his relationship to his young students. Portions of the film are charming. In one respect, Ian Holm was a good choice for Carroll/Dodgson, because he can project charm and innocence. But he's also the movie's biggest flaw. Holm was in his 50s when he acted the part. According to the movie's own chronology, Dodgson was only TWENTY years older than Alice, not FORTY. That extra 20 years makes the relationship with Alice seem even stranger than it already was. A suitable 30-ish actor would have reduced the "dirty old man" factor considerably.

Made entirely in England and yet not available in England, this film seems to lead us into dark corners only for the sun to shine brightly at the end, beautifully and carefully paced and with many very talented actors, especially the young Alice. This film predates Labyrinth by only a few months, and we can see in the Mad Hatter an early and successful test piece for Labyrinths Hoddle - even better though we can see the real life actor inspiring Hoddles face, as played by Ken Campbell. A must see companion piece to Labyrinth. Trek fans can note that Cheryl (Gates) McFadden (TNG Dr Crusher) also choreographed puppet movement for this movie.