MirrorMask
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| MirrorMask | |
|---|---|
 One-sheet promotional poster. |
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| Directed by | Dave McKean |
| Produced by | Martin G. Baker Lisa Henson Simon Moorhead Michael Polis |
| Written by | Neil Gaiman (story, screenplay) Dave McKean (story) |
| Starring | Stephanie Leonidas Jason Barry Rob Brydon Gina McKee |
| Music by | Iain Ballamy |
| Cinematography | Antony Shearn |
| Editing by | Nicolas Gaster |
| Distributed by | Destination Films (USA) Tartan Films (UK) |
| Release date(s) | September 30, 2005 |
| Running time | 101 min. |
| Language | English |
| Budget | US$4,000,000 |
| Gross revenue | US$866,999 (domestic) |
| Official website | |
| Allmovie profile | |
| IMDb profile | |
MirrorMask is a 2005 fantasy film from the Jim Henson Company, Samuel Goldwyn Films, and Destination Films. It stars Stephanie Leonidas, Jason Barry, Rob Brydon, and Gina McKee. It is designed and directed by Dave McKean, and written by Neil Gaiman from a story created by McKean and Gaiman.
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[edit] Synopsis
Helena is a girl who works at the family circus with her father and mother. One night she gets into an argument with her mother, Joanna, for Helena wants to "run away and join real life". When her exasperated mother says, "You're going to be the death of me," Helena sharply replies, "I wish I was." During that night's show, Joanna collapses and is sent to the hospital. Ten days later, Helena learns from her father that Joanna has to undergo an operation. Helena blames herself.
The night of the operation, Helena wakes up after a strange dream and sneaks out of the family apartment to see a masked man playing a violin. Nearby are two other masked men who are trying to juggle. Suddenly a shadow "consumes" the violin player and one of the jugglers. Helena flees from the danger with one of the other masked men, who introduces himself as Valentine.
Valentine leads Helena to the City of Light, where they see many unusual citizens leaving the city because of the Shadows that are consuming it. Helena is mistaken by the royal guards as a "Princess", and she is forcefully taken to the Palace of Light. At one point during her transportation, Helena looks into a house window and sees herself sleeping in her room, which makes her believe that she is still dreaming.
At the palace, she meets the Prime Minister, who can see that she is not the "Princess". The Prime Minister explains that there are two kingdoms: the City of Light and the Land of Shadow, both of which have their own queens. Three days prior, the Princess from the Land of Shadow arrived at the City of Light. Despite a warm welcome, the Princess stole their "charm" and fled in secret, leaving the White Queen in an unnatural sleep and the City of Light vulnerable to the Shadows. Helena decides to help them find the charm.
Recruiting a reluctant Valentine, Helena starts following clues throughout the city to find the charm, which she learns is the "MirrorMask". All the while, the pair have to elude the Shadows and other dangerous creatures. Unknown to Helena, the Dark Queen is also hunting her, thinking that she is the Princess who has run away.
At certain points, Helena looks into other windows, and instead of seeing herself asleep as she thought she would, she sees a doppelganger arguing with her father, smoking, and later making out with someone Helena disapproves of. When Helena yells through the window, the doppelganger "sees" her, prompting Helena to quickly hide.
Helena's search leads her to a small white building on the border between the City of Light and the Land of Shadow. Inside the building are hundreds of locks, one of which should reveal the Mirrormask. Before Helena can start trying the locks, she is betrayed by Valentine to the Dark Queen. Helena is hypnotized to think of herself as the Princess, and forgets her mission.
Valentine eventually has a change of heart, and secretly returns to the white building where he tries all the locks. He finds the right one, but is dismayed when its contents turn out to be a letter from the real Princess, announcing her theft of the MirrorMask. Valentine returns to the Dark Palace and apologizes to Helena, whom he helps remember who she is.
A recovered Helena and Valentine go into the Princess' room and discuss the information they have. Helena remembers that Joanna had always told her that when she's looking for something, it's very often staring at her right in the face. Helena looks at the Princess' mirror, and when she dips her face in it, the MirrorMask is revealed.
Helena and Valentine flee from the Dark Palace with the Dark Queen in pursuit. Helena now knows that the Princess has taken her place in the real world, and in order to set things right, she has to wear the MirrorMask and look at the Princess. It is also revealed the City of Light and Land of Shadows exist in Helena's drawings that are pasted on her room wall in the real world, and the Princess is methodically destroying these drawings.
Helena needs to find a window immediately, but the Princess destroys the last drawing and has apparently won. Standing on the apartment roof, the Princess throws the destroyed drawings in the air, but when she turns, the door slams shut to reveal another drawing on the door itself, and Helena waiting for her in it. Despite the Princess' protests, Helena puts the MirrorMask on.
Helena wakes up on the apartment roof, all the events in the City of Light and Land of Shadows apparently a "dream". She is found by her father, who tells her that Joanna's operation was a success. Helena is reunited with her mother, and apologizes for her previous behavior. Later, once the circus is running again, Helena bumps into a possibly human version of Valentine.
[edit] Characters
Helena Campbell, portrayed by Stephanie Leonidas, is the story's protagonist. She is a young circus performer and aspiring artist who dreams of running away to join 'real life'. Despite these feelings, Helena loves both of her parents. After a fight with her mother, in which Helena wishes she could 'be the death' of her, her mother falls ill, for which Helena blames herself. On the night doctors operate on her mother, Helena "dreams" of a mysterious world of masked people and monsters. In the context of the dream world, the Princess of the Land of Shadows has used a charm (the Mirrormask) to escape and join the real world, presumably switching places with Helena. As Helena has entered this world in the Princess' stead, she volunteers to help find the Mirrormask and use it to restore balance between the City of Light and the Land of Shadows. It soon becomes apparent that Helena is the creator of the dream world, having created it from her drawings, posters, sculptures and daydreams.
The Queen of Shadows, portrayed by Gina McKee, is the main villain on the film. She is possessive mother who treats her daughter like a pet. The Dark Queen mistakes Helena for the Princess who has run away, but when Helena reveals who she is, the Dark Queen does not care either way, as long as she has a daughter.
Joanne Campbell, portrayed by Gina McKee, is Helena's mother who has good intuition and advice that helps Helena find the MirrorMask. A circus acrobat and ticket-seller, Joanne also dresses up in a gorilla suit for a short skit with her husband and daughter; on the night she collapses another performer has to take over while she travels to the hospital. After an operation where they "got all of" the illness, Joanne returns to circus life with her relieved family.
The Queen of Light, portrayed by Gina McKee, is the Queen of the City of Light. She is a kind ruler, and the sun is her sigil. She falls into a deep sleep when the MirrorMask is stolen from her, leaving her city vulnerable to Shadows.
The Princess (Anti-Helena), portrayed by Stephanie Leonidas, is the Princess, the daughter of the Dark Queen, and Helena's parallel self in the dream world. She uses the MirrorMask to switch places with Helena and hides it in her room. After escaping to Helena's world - the "real world" - she takes advantage of her new freedom: dressing like a teenage punk, "snogging" boys that Helena finds distasteful, smoking, and arguing with Helena's father. Her only connection to Helena are occasional windows in the dream world that connect to the art on Helena's bedroom walls, allowing them to see each other. However, the Princess is destroying these windows by crumpling up and burning the drawings, so that she will never have to return to the dream world. It is unclear whether the Princess is returned unwillingly to the dream world or merges with Helena (a visual effect and the audio commentary by Gaiman and McKean on the DVD imply the latter).
Valentine, portrayed by Jason Barry, is a juggler and performer who describes himself as a "very important man." He becomes Helena's companion in the dream world, although his loyalty slips at times. The biggest slip occurs when he turns in Helena to the Dark Queen for "all the jewels he can carry", although he later recants this decision. Valentine is vain, cowardly, and sometimes dim, but he can be both clever and loyal when pushed into a corner. He is constantly in search of reward. He is very proud of his tower, a possession that was more useful before he and the tower had an argument and parted ways; when the Dark Queen is chasing him and Helena he finally shouts his apology and the tower rescues them. Valentine, like the other characters, has an unnamed counterpart in the real world whom we meet twice. The first time is when Valentine eats future fruit and sees an alternative future where he uses the Mirrormask to escape to the real world and ends up as a waiter; this vision influences his decision to give Helena the Mirrormask when she asks for it. The second time he asks to audition for the circus and talks to Helena after bumping into her. His personality is not noticeably different, but he knows nothing about the adventures in the dream world.
[edit] History
Reportedly, it was given a green light by a studio executive who wanted another movie that would sell as well in video release as Labyrinth and The Dark Crystal:
- "Well, in 2001, Lisa Henson phoned and said, 'Look, we've been talking with Sony, and it's become obvious that Labyrinth and The Dark Crystal, these two family fantasy movies that Henson made in the 80s, which at the time were both regarded as being flops, have gone on to have this life-forever. People love them, people remember them.' She said, 'We want to do something like that again.'" -- Neil Gaiman on [1]
- The time of production is clearly (although incidentally) evident in the film itself: scenes overlooking the seafront of Brighton, England, where the film was shot, show landmarks which provide chronological evidence of the film's production. In the scene where Helena and her father are on the rooftop, overlooking the seafront, the burned-out old West Pier is clearly visible, juxtaposed with the still-standing pier. The fire occurred in the early part of 2005.
[edit] Production
- The flat scenes were filmed in Embassy Court in Brighton that, at the time of filming, was semi-derelict and in a poor condition. After the filming was complete, Embassy Court was redeveloped.
- Filming took six weeks in an East London warehouse.
- The budget given to the director Dave McKean by the Jim Henson Company was $4 million.
- The original concept title of the film was 'The Curse of the Goblin King'.
[edit] Release
- The movie opened September 30, 2005 in the U.S. The film ultimately had only a very limited release. The North American DVD release on February 14, 2006 marked the first time this film was made available in most regions.
- The movie opened on a very limited release in Australia on December 8, 2005.
[edit] Themes
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This article or section may contain original research or unverified claims. Please improve the article by adding references. See the talk page for details. (September 2007) |
The character of the Princess (or anti-Helena) links to the Jungian idea of the 'doppelganger' or double; she is Helena's shadow self, the one that shouts at her mother in the beginning of the film, the side that she wants to apologize to her mother. Everything in the dream world has a double, sometimes evil, and this relates to the Jungian idea of the shadow self. The entire film is about the balance between the conscious and the dreaming, good and evil, black and white, dark and light.
As with other fantasy films about a young protagonist who enters a "dreamworld" that may or may not be real, MirrorMask contains a number of visual cues that link the real world with the supposed fantasy world, some of which are used in the opening sequence and foreshadow events that will take place later film. A clear example is in Helena's introduction, when she is seen playing with a white sock (the White Queen) and a black sock (the Black Queen). Helena can also be heard saying, "I'm a very important man", a line that the character Valentine will say repeatedly later in the film. Various objects in Helena's circus trailer and apartment room also reflect objects and places that Helena would later visit in the City of Light and Land of Shadow.
[edit] Associated work
Tokyopop in partnership with The Jim Henson Company are planning to publish a manga-style comic based on the movie, which will be a prequel to the film. TokyoPop Press Release
A small children's book, authored by Gaiman and illustrated by McKean, has already been released and distributed. A book containing the film's complete storyboard and script, as well as some photographs and archival text by Gaiman and McKean, has also been produced and distributed.
The band The Crüxshadows wrote and performed "Wake the White Queen", which retells the story of MirrorMask. This track appears on the Neil Gaiman-inspired compilation album, Where's Neil When You Need Him?.
[edit] Soundtrack
The film is notable for its soundtrack, which is composed mainly by British jazz luminary Iain Ballamy (who appears briefly in the film as a circus musician) and features contributions from other prominent musicians such as Arve Henriksen, Stian Carstensen, and Ballamy's old Loose Tubes bandleader Ashley Slater.
[edit] External links
- Official site
- MirrorMask at the Internet Movie Database
- Preview trailer
- Moviefone, with showtimes and locations
- MirrorMask at Rotten Tomatoes
- Dave McKean interview in the Guardian featuring details of the production process
- A humorous article by Dave McKean about the filming of Mirrormask
- Peter Sanderson's indepth analysis of the film
