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Friday, March 30, 2012
MOVIE REVIEW
Mirror Mirror
The Fairest? Not You, My Dear. It's Wicked Queen Julia!
Lily Collins as Snow White in Tarsem Singh's film adaptation "Mirror Mirror".
Relativity Media
by
Omar P.L. Moore/PopcornReel.com
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Friday, March 30,
2012
So what do you do when you should be queen but are
blocked by a haughty, wicked evil monarch who is bent on marrying the prince
you've always dreamed of being with? When that monarch is Julia Roberts,
your options are very limited. Either you fight fire with fire on the big
screen, or you step back and allow the baddie to entertain. Lily Collins
does the latter in Tarsem Singh's "Mirror Mirror", the latest retelling of the
classic Grimm fairy tale Snow White And The Seven Dwarves.
"Mirror Mirror" opened across the U.S. and Canada today, and Ms. Collins plays
Snow White, a melancholy presence with eyebrows almost the length of the Golden
Gate Bridge. Those eyebrows, a minor distraction, practically touch early
on, then as the film progresses, gradually separate like a Hestonian parting of
the Red Sea.
Ms. Roberts is endlessly delightful as the Queen, who revels in a prince (Armie
Hammer) who spends half the movie topless. "So sad," the queen laments,
that Prince Alcott has to put a covering over his bare chest. The Queen
checks her vanity in the mirror but not her greed and desire, which of course
won't end up serving her well. Ms. Roberts frolics in evil, cynicism and
catty, wicked malevolence better than anyone so far in 2012, and with such glee
you can't help but adore her. It's a special treat to see Ms. Roberts, the
box-office glamour lady of the 1990s, play a role where her beauty is
deglamourized so well. This queen is also ugly on the inside. In
many respects the Queen is Ms. Roberts poking fun at her "Pretty Woman" past in
a sly, cheeky way. Simply put, Ms. Roberts is the sole reason to see
"Mirror Mirror" where adults are concerned.
Conversely, Ms. Collins couldn't be more ordinary as Snow White. Granted,
Snow is supposed to be a bland if not pitiful character but there's so little
countervailing challenge from Snow to the Queen that she's virtually alienated
from the heart of Mr. Singh's comedy adventure. Snow is relegated to bit
player, biding time until opportune moments of glory arrive. Snow loves the
handsome and dashing Alcott on sight, and as the story goes, falls for him and
tries to recapture her true title. These two star-crossed souls keep
meeting like *this*, and don't stop. When the sad-eyed pallor of Snow
becomes too much thankfully seven trusty rebel dwarves happily provide the
distraction from the somewhat inanimate protagonist.
Even when "Mirror Mirror" -- which indulges adult pleasures with its generous
helping of subtle sexual delights, including the Queen's makeover montage and
the continuous spanking and horizontal-izing of Snow -- gets better for the
character, Ms Collins doesn't meet the changes in fortune with the requisite
energy to accompany Snow's ascendance. She's alluring enough but not very
interesting even in this strait-jacketed role. I wish Ms. Collins could
have made better use of her prodigious talents here. Mr. Hammer has vigor
as the prince who jousts and jokes, but it's Nathan Lane on the mark as
Brighton, the queen's trusted servant, who takes the film along with Ms. Roberts
and makes it more than a dull affair.
Mr. Singh, a director proficient in visual stages if not story crafting, makes
"Mirror Mirror" a pristine, fresh and bright experience though not an especially
fulfilling one. Curious indeed is the film's opening animated sequence;
it's a clever way to bridge the gap and save payroll, but when the King shows up
later you wonder why the director hadn't cast the same or different actor for
the early sequence.
Expressly for the kids, "Mirror Mirror" is just eye-popping and funny enough to
satisfy the little ones and comical and spiky because of wicked Queen Julia R.
She's oh-so-good, and the fairest way to justify an adult's excursion to the
theater, other than to take the children.
With: Martin Klebba, Jordan Prentice, Robert Emms, Mare Winningham, Michael
Lerner, Ronald Lee Clark.
"Mirror Mirror" is rated PG by the Motion Picture Association Of America for
some fantasy action and mild rude humor. The film's running time is one
hour and 46 minutes.
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