Set in a fantasy world of opposing kingdoms, the movie follows a 15-year-old (Stephanie Leonidas) as she journeys through a parallel reality to recover the fabled MirrorMask that will revive a queen.
McKean's inexperience as a director trips the film. There is so much going on that the viewer can't take in all the imagery, and McKean's devotion to his skewed vision slows the story to a crawl.
Mirrormask eventually establishes itself as an thoroughly interminable piece of work that substitutes endless creativity for context and character development...
Leonidas walks this tightrope quite engagingly, showing us a girl on the cusp of womanhood, torn between two competing needs -- to become an adult, to remain a child, to vilify, to revere.
The story is interesting, in a twisted fairytale sort of way, but the novelty of this dream world does eventually wear off, and we're left checking our watches.
ReelViews
October 21, 2005
The narrative is simplistic and lacking in energy, and the characters are sketched instead of fully formed.
Too long, and too rich, for its own good, but clearly Gaiman and McKean were bursting with ideas. Those ideas fly all over the place, sometimes landing with a thunk, but more often taking the breath away.
Orlando Sentinel
October 21, 2005
A 30-minute idea wrapped in a 100-minute movie. It's a jewel box filled with cubic zirconia.