What hangs on a wall, is green, and whistles?

Movie Review: MirrorMask

If you're looking for an weird and twisted fantasy movie to rent, might I recommend this new picture from Jim Henson Productions and director Dave McKean. Here's the official summary:

MirrorMask centers on Helena, a 15 year old girl in a family of circus entertainers, who often wishes she could run off and join real life. After a fight with her parents about her future plans, her mother falls quite ill and Helena is convinced that it is all her fault. On the eve of her mother's major surgery, she dreams that she is in a strange world with two opposing queens, bizarre creatures, and masked inhabitants. All is not well in this new world - the white queen has fallen ill and can only be restored by the MirrorMask, and it's up to Helena to find it. But as her adventures continue, she begins to wonder whether she's in a dream, or something far more sinister.

This movie is filled with interesting and quirky characters both at the circus and in the dream world, that really give a sense of mystery and insanity to the world born from Helena's own artwork. One thing I love about it is how Helena never really questions the world she finds herself in, but simply goes along with it, from escaping the shadow by riding a book to thwarting a sphinx's riddles with one of her own (that Bilbo Baggins might have been proud of).

One of my favorite sequences comes a bit over half-way through the movie and involves one of the sweetly creepiest renditions of Close to You I can ever remember hearing.

Overall, this is a bit like a darker, more twisted Alice in Wonderland or Labrynth and if you liked those, be sure to give this one a try.