Mirror, Mirror, on the wall, who’s the fairest of them all? Snow White is the fairest…the 1937 Disney animated Snow White. 75 years later, Hollywood is in a “Snow White” craze with two big releases based on the fairy tale in the first half of 2012. “Snow White and the Huntsman” is a well done dark, action/adventure. “Mirror Mirror”, on the other hand, is a light family comedy with only mild action. It also isn’t funny or exciting, and at times is uncomfortable to watch.
In this version of the story, Snow White’s mother (the Queen) died at childbirth and so her father (the King) had to take care of her. He found a new Queen, and she would be the one to rule the land and take care of Snow White because the King went off to fight in the forest and was never heard from again. Julia Roberts stars as The Queen, an evil and strict woman who has destroyed the once prosperous and happy kingdom by taking all the townspeople’s money. And she despises the now 18-year-old Snow White (Lily Collins).
One day without permission, Snow White goes outside the castle and into the forest where she rescues Prince Alcott (“J. Edgar”‘s Armie Hammer), who was held captive by seven bandits. These bandits are the seven dwarfs, but don’t have the Happy, Dopey, Grumpy names like in the Disney classic. The Queen orders her #1 servant (played by Nathan Lane) to kill Snow White, but instead he allows her to escape into the forest, where she meets-up with the dwarfs. At the same time, the Queen wants to marry Prince Alcott but he’s falling for Snow White, I bet you can figure out the rest.
And that’s one of the many problems with “Mirror Mirror” – there’s nothing new or different about this story to make it even worth making the new version. This movie tries too hard to be too cute. You can tell the filmmakers were trying to copy the successful formula of Disney’s “Enchanted” (updated spin on the fairy tale genre) but they failed miserably.
The film does have a pretty good cast, but they have very little material to work with. Roberts’ Queen tries to talk “evil” with her dialogue but doesn’t actually do anything evil. And for some reason she has an alter ego (her as the “woman in the mirror”) who is just bizarre to look at. Collins (“The Blind Side”) is a good choice as the plucky princess. You feel bad for Hammer (who was very good in “J. Edgar” and “The Social Network”), because the script has him doing some embarrassing scenes, including playing a dog and actually licking Roberts. Lane is a funny guy, and though he does have a couple of decent one-liners, he’s mostly wasted here. Most of the jokes fall flat, including the all ones involving the dwarfs, who are a bit overused. But all of the costumes (especially Roberts’ large dresses) are very nice.
There are a couple of good moments in “Mirror, Mirror” when Hammer and Collins are together dancing and sword-fighting. But the rest of this film is simply silly. At times characters say lines that really has nothing to do with what’s happening. It’s as if the writers knew a scene was dying, so they added what they thought was a funny line to try to save the day. The special effects are anything but. Most of the backgrounds are green screen, and the creatures (including gigantic wooden puppets – Why? I don’t know – and some type of dragon-looking thing) aren’t scary, just weird.
“Mirror Mirror” is rated PG for some mild action and brief language. It’s appropriate for kids 9 and up. Younger ones might like the slapstick, but anyone of any age will get freaked-out when Julia Roberts walks into the mirror and comes out of the water onto a boardwalk in the Philippines. Overall, this is one of the corniest and wackiest movies I’ve seen in some time.
On The Official LCJ Report Card, “Mirror Mirror” gets a C-. It bombed at the box office and comes out in Blu-ray/DVD is near record time. Likely an attempt to make some money by taking advantage of the success of “Huntsman” and trying to get people interested in buying/renting this 2nd-rate Snow White story.