Amnesiac Alice (Maggie Grace, Lost’s Shannon) rushes down an underpass and hooks up with Whitey (Danny Dyer), a cab driver who worries he’s always late. On the run through a tilted, neon-lit, nighttime cityscape, they encounter bizarre, dangerous characters.
This urban spin on Lewis Carroll has clever reinterpretations (here, ‘stealing tarts’ means abducting prostitutes, the Cheshire Cat is a mysterious DJ, and Tweedledum and Tweedledee are obnoxious club doormen), and guest turns from the likes of Nathaniel Parker and Bronagh Gallagher combine Britpic gangland eccentricity with Adam West Batman villainy. Grace is a touch vapid as a pill-popping, whiny Alice, and — even in this context — Dyer’s jitteriness is overdone, but Malice is lively and inventive, and has a unique look.
