Cast: Julia Roberts, Lily Collins, Armie Harmmer and Nathan Lane
Director: Tarsem Singh
Ratings: 1.5/5
Visually appealing but lacks everything else...
By Priyanka Ketkar
"Mirror Mirror on the wall, who is the fairest of all..." born and brought up on this fairytale version of Snow White, it is a bit confusing and even irritating to see Tarsem Singh's imagination running wild in the latest adaptation of Mirror, Mirror.
There is the big-bad-beautiful queen (Julia Roberts), there is a fairer step-daughter princess- Snow White (Lily Collins), there is a charming Prince Alcott (Armie Hammer) and there are the seven "giant"-dwarfs; it has all the ingredients for making the perfect Snow White movie, yet, something is definitely amiss.
The Queen starts-off narrating the movie and moves into a flash-back to the place where once upon a time, people used to sing and dance. Now however, the place is sad, gloomy and filled with poverty. Snow White is trapped in the castle and declared a lunatic who needs to be kept in hiding, the jealous Queen is bankrupt due to her expensive tastes and the King is apparently dead due to the monster in the woods.
A Prince comes wandering into these woods and is robbed by a few bandits, who are actually the tiny dwarfs. Snow White who at the same time for a little adventure of her own, saves the prince and his accomplice and both share an instant eye-to-eye connection. The Queen now has her eyes on the Prince and wants to get married to him so that all her financial troubles will be sorted. To do this, she has to remove Snow White out of her way. Snow White who is supposed to die, is rescued by the bandits; i.e. the dwarfs and though initially they are reluctant, soon they take a liking to her and let her be their leader. Now is the time to fight and Snow White will do anything to get back her Prince and the kingdom...
The story is twisted, the dark magic weak and the chemistry zero. The classic tale of Snow White has been adapted, taking a lot of creative liberty but Singh goes too far with it. Knowing the original story, I could hardly relate to it, maybe the younger public will be able to relate to it better. Julia Roberts is no doubt charming, but she is not so cunning except in the last scene. Two things which the movie lacks the most are the witch mother and Snow White's tiff, and Snow White and Prince Charming's love. The dialogues are age-15-funny and absolutely lack any punch. The film is terribly slow.
On the upside, Julia Roberts and Lily Collins are both very charming. Armie Hammer suits the silly-boy role and Nathan Lane as The Queen's side-kick, is excellent. Mirror Mirror is bright and colourful and a fun-watch for all the young kids (even i liked it).
Alan Menken's music is very Indian and it goes completely off; often, making the film look like a joke. What ruined the film for me though, is the final "I Believe...I Believe... I Believe..." chant-song and dance sequence. After that all I could think about was "I can't believe... I can't believe... I just can't believe... they did this to the movie..."