We All Wear Masks

I'm still going to read the Anansi Boys, but this post isn't going to be about it.

Oh, no no no. This my friends, is a review of one movie I loved and still love. Mirrormask. Because I don't quite have time to read an entire book before tomorrow, I decided I would watch one of the Recommended movies in its temporary stead. A movie I remember liking very much.

Knowing that this was written by the same guy who writes Anansi Boys, I'm going to read that book, because this movie is still quite wonderful watching it a couple years later.

The main character, Helena, I at first found to be annoying, but I guess I could understand her plight. As bratty as she initially seemed, she is a character just entered into the teenage phase and this story seems to become one of a war between her childhood, her teenage self, and the person she is going to become. I was told before that once a person reaches a certain age, they are a combination of three selves just like those --a child, a teen, and an adult. Well, as far as this movie goes, they actually show the physical alter ego of Helena as the antagonist in the movie later on, threatening to ruin the life she had, all her drawings, and anything left of the childhood that created her. Helena finally confronts this alter-ego she then realizes is not all that different from how she was, and horrified, does what she can to stop her.

But to be honest, I didn't fall in love with the characters all that much or the story itself, though I was partial to Valentine and the Queen of Shadows. The two are both morally ambiguous in their own ways, though the Queen of Shadows seems to steer towards the dark, she still cares for her daughter who cares not for her. The relationship between the Queen of Shadows and the alter-Helena is reflective of the raw emotion in the first scene between Helena and her mother in the movie. Both at the time were caught in their own selfish desires. Helena's mother wanted to continue supporting her father and taking Helena along {against her wishes} while Helena wants to leave her family and the business in favor of a 'normal' life, even if it means tearing her family away from their business. Valentine, while the adorable and peculiar creature he seems to be, also has his own motives and selfish desires, though he is generally a good person and proves to be when he comes back for Helena after reconsidering his feelings about what he had done.

The story was basic, though I guess it was meant to be more imaginative and meaningful than it was to be strong and informative. This is certainly one of those hero quests that involve taking someone, putting them through fairy land, then coughing them back out as a brand new person to contend with the world more properly. She starts by ending up in fairy land, learning the rules as best as possible, learning what to avoid, traveling to the land of the shadows in a more...literal sense, nearly obtaining the boon of power, failing, getting betrayed, getting turned {you know, like the dying and being reborn thing}, turning back, obtaining the boon, rescuing fairy land, and returning home without being able to go back. She's grown a little wiser and we've grown impressed by her improvement as a human being.

What I loved just as much as the first time I watched this was the environment, the fairy land itself, and its quirks. In this world, darkness is practically evil, devouring and preparing to conquer in the absence of light. There's the spinx? I'm probably misspelling it, but the cat with the face. They pop up a couple of times and like the creature seems to have a penchant for knowledge and wit. There's floating books that hover when you degrade them. Everyone wears masks and finds it odd when you don't. That's just brushing the surface too. I love all the quirks and animations that are in this story and this dreamland. They are what make this movie memorable to me.

-Peace out