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Friday, 7 January 2011
There are few things more annoying than watching a film being praised for all the wrong reasons. More than that, it’s more exasperating how an unremarkable performance from a film can be praised while others remain in the background both literally and figurative. I suppose the fact that it wasn’t a big role accounts for its forgotten states, but I’m still especially fond of
Crispin Glover in Alice in Wonderland
as Stayne, Knave of Hearts
I think we can all agree that Helena Bonham Carter was the best-in-show in Tim Burton’s Alice in Wonderland (reviewed here) and true, even those who’ve mistakenly (in my book) given support to Depp’s work in the film agree on that. What I wish they’d take time out to note is the fact that Crispin Clover’s second-in-command to the diabolical Red Queen easily emerges as the film’s most notable male performance. Bonham Carter has a terrifying screen presence that’s put to full use here and in all her tyranny Glover must be the diplomatic bridge between the Queen’s constant freak-outs and those she freaks out upon. Naturally, he himself has pent-up hatred for the Queen. Woolverton’s resolution to their relationship which only reinforces the poorness of the screenplay but watching Glover’s very slick Knave opposite Bonham Carter’s very fiery Queen is a treat. Because the Red Queen is so officious he ends up having to spend a great deal of time playing reactionary shots that he absolutely sells. There’s something a little creepy about him (put to excellent use in Charlie’s Angels), but he tempers the creepiness – and where the screenplay is doing nothing to help him out he creates the Knave as a very interesting anti-hero who you want to know more of.

Do you remember Glover’s dark Knave or did Burton’s officiously directed Alice in Wonderland make you forget him?
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