Mirror, Mirror: The Untold Story of Snow White
Snow White has certainly risen to popularity this year. First with Once Upon A Time, then Mirror, Mirror, and next up there’s Snow White and The Huntsman. Personally after comparing the trailer of the latter two, I saw more promise in, strangely enough, Kristen Stewart’s version, but only because it seems not only more serious but also more awesome. Mirror, Mirror, on the other hand, is more of a comedy. And even though it has some big names in it, especially Julia Roberts, I’m afraid I have to report that some of the humor simply fell flat. Either because you’ve heard it before, it’s just cliché, or it’s simply not that funny.
Armie Hammer makes for a good Disney prince face-wise, but his performance wasn’t spectacular either, although he was particularly amusing under the effect of a certain potion I shall not spoil you about. Lilly Collins does make a nice Snow White—when she’s not distracting me with her super thick eyebrows (please tell me I’m not the only one who feels this way)—who eventually learned to fight and fend for herself. But I think Kristen Stewart’s doing the same for her movie, and it looks like she might be an even more badass Snow White. We shall see.
I suppose the interesting thing about this movie is we learned a little more about the prince than in most versions. Usually he’s just that random guy who swooped in out of nowhere and makes you wonder how he even found her in the first place. Also, they would have barely talked before he gave her the ‘true love’s kiss’. But Mirror, Mirror spent so much time taking various liberties with the story that it’s almost unrecognizable as the classic tale of Snow White. For all we know it could have been a story about some other princess with an evil stepmother (and they’re pretty common in fairy tales, no?) Even the poisoned apple didn’t make an appearance until the end, and by then I’d forgotten that it was supposed to be there. And the apple was supposed to be Snow White’s story trademark!
In any case, if you’re just looking for a fun experience in which you can watch a movie without thinking much and maybe laugh a little (and swoon over the prince’s handsome face), you can watch Mirror, Mirror, but you definitely shouldn’t come with too many expectations.
