Some years ago, it became incredibly unhip to like sweet, charming fairytales. Everything had to be kissed by cynicism and touched by self-referential humor. Gone was the literate sweetness and strong romance of Cocteau's "Beauty and the Beast" or Disney's mid-century princess films.
Even the most earnest attempts at princess stories "Tangled" and "The Princess and the Frog," have fallen prey. Prince Charming is being swapped out for the ghostly pallor of Edward Cullen and fair maidens for Giselle from "Enchanted" who has to let her fairytale existence be shattered by the oppressive realities of the "real world" before she can fall in love.
I blame "Shrek." The 2001 animated smash mined its comedy from mocking the fairy tale cliches and tropes making it more difficult for filmmakers to try to reinvent these classic stories with the grace and blithe they occasionally call for.
So how does one construct "Snow White" nowadays?
For Tarsem, the visual wunderkind and pop avant garde mastermind behind the journey into the mind of the pedophile in "The Cell" or the ass-raping of Greek mythology that was "Immortals," he went a route that seems almost diametrically opposed to his vision...he went earnest.
We open in one of those faraway kingdoms that looks more like a theme park back lot rather than any real place, and we hear the creamy voice of our narrator the Evil Queen played with surprising venom and quick wit by Julia Roberts. She tries with her cool way to insist that we don't know the whole story, but for the most part we do. Snow White (Lily Collins), the sweet shut-in princess is the lone threat to her being the fairest in the land, and after the meeting the handsome Prince Alcott (Armie Hammer) that could help pull her kingdom out of financial ruin, the queen has Snow White banished to the woods to be killed by the huntsman. Instead she ends up with the seven dwarfs who train her not only to dress and act like a thief (their chosen profession), but also to avenge her kingdom from her stepmother.
First and foremost, it's hard to talk about the many pleasures of "Mirror, Mirror" without talking about the opulent, stunning costume work by the late Eiko Ishioka. Having worked with Tarsem on all of his varied creations, Ishioka had a sense of color, shape, and character that never ceases to just make your jaw drop.
Even more than the costumes themselves, but the actors who get to don them give surprising turns. Roberts hasn't seem to have this much fun in one of her films in a long while. She's funny without being schticky, evil without being campy, and really quite enjoyable.
I wish Lily Collins could be as strong as Snow, but she's just so bland. Her line reading just feels so stilted and so....strained. She's sweet and cute, but hardly the proto-feminist the film tries to make her in its final act. But the place where Collins and the film exceed most stridently are their interactions with Armie Hammer as the prince. Obviously, on paper, his look: tall, incredibly handsome, and classic face would make him an ideal charming prince, but then he's funny and the very game when the script asks very silly moments of him. He's adding more layers as an actor which is mighty surprising.
The film get a little long in the tooth in the last twenty minutes and the final action sequence is completely ridiculous. Some of the casting feels a bit off as well. I love Nathan Lane and Mare Winningham, but their presences as the Queen's truckling lech and the kind-hearted baker in who Snow trusts feel so arbitrary as well.
"Mirror, Mirror" is an awfully sweet picture that feels satisfying even when it's the silliest. Grade: B-
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