Mirror, Mirror

A bit of a modern adaptation on the Grimm Fairy Tale of Snow White. For those of you unfamiliar with the story (and I don't know who would not have EVER heard of the story at the very least) it is a tale of an Evil Queen who is the step-mother of a princess named Snow White, so named for her fair skin and dark hair. The Queen is obsessed with being the most beautiful in all the land, and with the help of a magic mirror, she learns that Snow White has taken her place in that category. She sends her into the woods to be killed by one of the Queen's servants. He cannot do it and lets her go, where she finds 7 dwarfs who take her in and help her. This movie deviates from the original story in several aspects, the most obvious is taking the "Princess in need of rescuing" out of the equation.

Julia Roberts as the Evil Queen, Lily Collins as Snow White, Armie Hammer as Prince Alcott, Nathan Lane as Brighton, Danny Woodburn as Grimm and Martin Klebba as Butcher

Who will like this movie:

A family film for families with children  who are not very young or impressionable. The commercials and trailers I've seen make it seem that this is more of a comedy for the whole family, but the truth is that it will not keep younger viewers interest and may be too frightening at parts for them.

Phantom Thoughts

This is the first of two Snow White based films set to be released this year. When news of this was released, neither studio decided to drop the project and the race was on to get each film done. Unfortunately, it shows with this one. The costumes were magnificent and the cinematography was fantastic, however it falls short of what it could have been. Nathan Lane and his comedic talent was extremely under-used in this project. Julia Roberts was great as the Evil Queen who was not just evil for the sake of being evil, but expressing her vanity as the driving force of her actions. She delivers the lines perfectly and with a hint of sarcasm makes her performance really enjoyable to watch. The twist in the tale, is that although Snow White starts out as the familiar "damsel in distress", she does not end up that way. Snow White (Played by Lily Collins who strikes an amazing resemblance to a young Audry Hepburn) finds out what the Evil Queen has done to her Father's kingdom and when she is left in the woods by Nathan Lane's character, she comes across the 7 dwarfs. SPOILER: During her time with them, they teach her how to fight and give her other skills needed to stop the Evil Queen. When the Queen puts a spell on the Prince to fall in love with her, it is actually Snow White's kiss to the Prince that breaks the spell. And it is Snow White who fights the "beast" said to be stalking the woods.
    I really feel if they had made this a bit funnier and more kid friendly, it would have been a really good movie. But in my opinion, it was just "OK". There were some really good parts (like the dwarfs as thieves in spring stilts). I can't help but think that if they had not worried about getting it out before "Snow White and the Huntsman", they could have fine tuned the script and let Nathan Lane do some of his magic to create something really special. BIG SPOILER: The other thing that bothered me was the very ending. The Evil Queen makes one last ditch effort to kill Snow White, but her plot is realized, and instead of showing mercy in what would have been the "good guy" thing to do, Snow White instead gets revenge while using the EXACT WORDS the Evil Queen used on her in the beginning of the movie! Followed directly by a song and dance ending while the credits roll. Ugh! It's good enough for a discount viewing, or even a rental. Better yet, go rent "Ella Enchanted". That was a great movie and how this one SHOULD have been like. SPOILER: I did enjoy at the prologue of the characters, revealing that one of the dwarfs named Grimm went on to write fairy tales, giving a cinematic nod to the original authors of the story, The Brothers Grimm.

Until next time, I'll see you in the center seat.