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Article IndexBY NANCY R. MANDELL
NEWKERSEYNEWSROOM.COM
MOVIE REVIEW
When I was a little girl, my mother took me to a revival of “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs,” Disney’s first full-length animated feature and still a staple on every list of best animated films of all time. But primarily, I remember it as the movie that gave me nightmares for weeks afterwards. The evil queen’s metamorphosis into the old hag who offers the beautiful Snow White the nearly fateful poisoned apple haunted my dreams for longer than I care to admit — which is exactly why I couldn’t wait to see “Mirror Mirror.” I already knew from the deluge of trailers announcing this latest retelling of the Grimm Brothers tale, that Julia Roberts had assumed the role of wicked queen/evil stepmother with license as broad as her famous smile. And the previews did not lie.
The treasured story remains fairly intact, but spans all kinds of generation gaps with a smart (and sometimes smart-alecky) screenplay that means it won’t matter whether you take the kids to see it, or they take you!
Directed by Tarsem Singh (“Immortals,” “The Cell”), “Mirror Mirror” is virtually all live-action with spot-on performances by Roberts, a wide-eyed Lily Collins (the daughter in “The Blind Side” and daughter of Phil Collins in real life) as Snow; Armie Hammer (last seen as Hoover’s lover in “J. Edgar”) as a really handsome —and often shirtless—Prince Alcott; Broadway favorite Nathan Lane (“The Birdcage” ) in a new role as Brighton, the queen’s obsequious and wise-cracking manservant and very briefly, Sean Bean (HBO’s “Game of Thrones” ) as a mostly absent king.
Rounding out the hard-working cast are the seven actors who bring new stature, names and personalities to the dwarfs who rescue Snow White from her forest exile: Butcher (Martin Klebba), Grimm (Danny Woodburn), Half-Pint (Mark Povinelli), Napoleon (Jordan Prentice), Wolf (Sebastian Saraceno), Chuckles (Ronald Lee Clark) and Grub (Joe Gnoffo) are named for the roles they played in local village life before size discrimination forced them into a life of crime. And believe me, the sight of the seven dwarfs as ferocious highwaymen is a very funny visual.
The film itself is a visual treat, from the sumptuous sets by production designer Tom Foden to the outrageously overstated costumes by the late Eiko Ishioka—all thanks to cinematographer Brendan Galvin. While there are no hummable tunes from veteran composer Alan Menken’s score, Paul Becker’s choreography produces a memorably gymnastic swordfight between Snow White and the Prince. The consistently remarkable gymnastics make a good stand-in for animation throughout the film. Like many recent Disney heroines, Collins’ Snow White quickly learns to defend—and fend for—herself.
