MirrorMask

I think I understand why this film was not generally well-received by the critics, it probably helps to have come in predisposed to the collaborations of Dave McKean and Neil Gaiman, as I was. If you are so predisposed, one look at the trailer (which you can and should watch here) made you realize: This is a movie that looks just like a piece of Dave McKean artwork...which of course it is. That's the kind of spiral logic this film inspires.

Now I regret having waited for home video, I wish I'd seen it on a big screen. More, I wish virtual reality had actually worked out; if ever there was a movie that makes you wish you could strap on your goggles and step inside it, this is the one.

I believe it was also underrated by critics because at first viewing-I intend watching it again-the climax does not quite come off. And that sends critics home to their keyboards (trust me, I know) with a feeling that all the spokes of the wheel do not quite reach from the rim to the hub.

Yet as I think about it (or perhaps I mean reflect upon it given the title), I think that perhaps the seeds of the ending were planted earlier in the film and there is a logic to it, but dream logic. Which is all we should expect from Gaiman. I am being, of course, deliberately vague for your experience of this film should be your own.

I want to say: This is an amazing thing; something...

PS: As for the DVD, the "making of" documentary is worth it for the brief scene of Gaiman playfully bitching at his longtime collaborator alone."You were the one who had to have monkeybirds...mice on roller skates, I said, they'll be a lot smaller...but no..."