Michael Hayden (Kiefer Sutherland) is a drunk police detective haunted by nightmares of visions through the eye of the killer. He's put on the Jabberwocky case. It's been ten years since the last time the "Alice in Wonderland" obsessed serial killer showed up. Michael starts having waking visions. Harvey (Henry Czerny) claims that they're psychic visions. He's a literary college professor. Dr. Vera Swann (Polly Walker) insists that Harvey is not Jabberwocky.The drunken haunted police detective may be a cliché. It is still a perfectly good character. In another movie, this could be a compelling character. This movie is a mess. The connections seem random. The plot seems disjointed. The case is not laid out very well. Sutherland keeps the movie from going off the rails but he isn't able to save this. The psychic visions are a bit lame. It's a poorly made psychic police procedural.

I really liked this movie. If other people want to give it an average around 5.0/10 that's their choice. I would give it higher. Sutherland's performance as a private eye is totally awesome. The story is amazing, human, exciting, intelligent. The dialogue is good. The story might not be perfect but anyway - the mood of the movie is good enough to compensate for that. Moreover, the ending is incredibly cool and their the jig-saw puzzle really comes back to together. So anyway I liked it. I also thought the female lead actress performed very well. I'm not a big fan of detective movies but this one was really good, also because it doesn't give a damn about conventions of the supernatural.

Working the night shift in a seedy police station, stumbling through life in an alcoholic haze, Detective Mickey Hayden can hardly be said to have a firm grasp on reality to begin with, but when a bump on the head unleashes terrifying psychic visions, things get truly weird. Soon he's on the trail of a serial killer and unraveling the mystery of his beautiful first victim, the elusive Alice.The role of an embittered burn-out seems tailor-made for Keifer Sutherland and he makes the most of it. The plot's typical serial killer stuff, but it has enough quirks, twists, and genuine surprises to raise it above the usual genre fare and even make up for a painfully low budget. (One wonders what this film could have been if there'd been money for a few more rewrites and a few more takes.)All in all, 'After Alice' is a pleasant diversion for anyone, but for fans of Lewis Carroll's 'Alice' books, it's a real treat. From the topsy-turvy reality in which things are rarely what they've seem, to more obvious references -- a killer called 'The Jabberwocky', who leaves playing cards on his victims' bodies -- there's an 'Alice' reference at every turn. Below is a list of the ones I uncovered. Since finding them yourself is half the fun, I've marked them as spoilers.SPOILERSCast of CharactersMickey - In a sense he's Alice himself wandering through strange landscapes, encountering odd characters, but Harvey, recognizing his true nature, identifies him as the hapless, bumbling White Knight. John Hatter (Mickey's boss) - Is he really 'mad'? You be the judgeClaudette - An African-American transvestite. Obviously, the Black QueenMargaret Ellison - Mickey calls her the Red Queen, but her brutal nature suggests, more specifically, the Queen of Hearts.Gideon Wood - Suspected of being the Jabberwocky killer, his ambiguous role is more suggestive of a snark (or a boojum perhaps).Harvey - His role as unofficial guide to 'wonderland' and his name, evocative of another famous cinematic rabbit, makes me think he must be the White RabbitDr. Vera Swann - Her last name and relationship with Mickey suggest the White Queen.Other ConnectionsMickey's adventures begin when he chases a man in white and falls down a (rabbit) hole. Mickey drunkenly tells his cat to stop grinning at him (Cheshire Cat)The killer is revealed 'through the looking glass'.The climatic showdown ends in a swirl of playing cards, just as Alice's adventure did in the book.The statues in the garden look like giant chess pieces.

Trash. The script: trash. The cinematography: trash. The acting: 90% trash. The plot: trash. I did not enjoy the movie. I figured it out pretty quickly. Most characters were poorly acted; Kiefer Sutherland was not too bad. The writing was absolutely horrible. Not worth the time it took to watch. I'm sorry if I offended anyone who worked on this picture, but that is merely my opinion.