I'm always on the lookout for what sounds like a spooky retelling of the Lewis Carroll classic. After all, a fantasy world filled with talking creatures and such lends itself well to the idea of some good old fashioned scares. When MALICE IN WONDERLAND came across my desk I knew I wasn't in for a straight up horror feature yet I had still hoped for at least a good dark rendition of the story. While Simon Fellow's version is a bit dark, it sadly only manages to feel plodding and a bit dull. There is some redemption in the form of characters going on; clever remakes of the original talking creatures of the book. They simply don't add up to much more than set pieces unfortunately.

The star of our odd little drama/thriller/crime retelling is Maggie Grace, the leggy rich brat of the early seasons of "Lost". Here, Ms. Grace is once again the child of a rich man, this time with a case of amnesia after being hit by a cab. She was running from something but she has no idea what. What she doesn't know is that the driver of the cab that struck her is none other than Whitey, the fast talking gopher of the Wonderland underworld. He's late for a party and drags Alice into the belly of Wonderland, a weird dream like version of England. They can't keep Harry Hunt waiting for his coming out of prison party though; nobody keeps Harry Hunt waiting. Before long, Alice is on a dark trip through the underside where she will find love, the mystery she was running from and more.

MALICE has a fun setup indeed and I'll give it credit for an ambitious homage to the classic story. The overall theme of Fellow's take on Wonderland is a criminal underworld that operates just below the common state of awareness in Northern England. It is a good setting for the bizarre environs of Carroll's original and the characters fit in great as well. Whitey played by Danny Dyer subs in for the White Rabbit. You have Hattie the madame, owner of Wonderland's traveling brothel. The pot smoking caterpillar of the original is replaced by a dope smoking pimp named aptly, Caterpillar, with his trusty sidekick Hooker by his side. Finally, you have the local DJ named DJ Felix Chester who drops Alice some words of wisdom during his late night R&B marathons. They're all quirky and each one of them are brought to life in great fashion by their respective actors. The problem is, nothing really exciting happens with any of them.

The biggest fault that befalls the movie is its slow dream-like pace. While I agree that with the films drug themes and such, a dreamlike stroll through Wonderland is generally a safe bet. The picture looks great; it is filled with soft dark colors and a faint haze throughout all of their time in the dark side of England. There simply isn't a whole lot going on in Wonderland. Most of our great quirky characters are simply standing about and talking and do not really seemed to be involved in a whole lot of action. This is especially noticeable since they are all supposed to be members of the criminal underworld. For a bunch of crooks, I have to wonder if I live a more dangerous life than most of these folks do and the most threatening thing I have to deal with on a daily basis is a 10 year old daughter. This lack of action makes the slow pacing stand out even more and after awhile; it just isn't that interesting.

MALICE IN WONDERLAND has great ambition and they made great strides towards this end in some aspects of the film. For an overall package though, it feels slow and limp with little to prop it up. Perhaps the movie is more enjoyable in the right mind set for this type of slow meandering film; it's possible, there's really a lot of talent at work here. For me though; it sadly fell short of being labeled as entertaining.