Film Review: Mirror Mirror

Mirror Mirror. Rated PG (mild themes and violence). 106 minutes. Directed by Tarsem Singh. Screenplay by Melissa Wallack and Jason Keller.

Verdict: A veritable feast for the eyes, but not necessarily the ears.

Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm’s (the Brothers Grimm) fairytale Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs was most famously produced for the screen by Walt Disney in 1937. Celebrated as the first cel-animated feature film in motion picture history, Disney’s Snow White … , (with its unforgettable songs by Frank Churchill and Larry Morey including ‘Heigh-Ho’ and ‘Some Day My Prince Will Come’) remains an extraordinary artistic achievement.

And while you certainly won’t be inspired to sing ‘Heigh ho, heigh ho, it’s off to work we go’ at the end of this sumptuously costumed and designed adaptation, there is a good deal to enjoy – especially for fans of Julia Roberts, who parades the late Eiko Ishioka’s spectacular costumes most memorably. Relentlessly upstaged by the frocks, Ms Roberts’ performance as The Queen is, otherwise, curiously restrained – and with a few exceptions, the film suffers from a fractured sense of everyone being unsure just how over-the-top to go with the material.

Away from Production Designer Tom Foden’s lavishly-designed court (featuring a sensational clifftop castle), the seven dwarfs are successfully reimagined as a marauding gang of forest-dwelling, acrobatic thieves who we first meet when they ambush a dopey, charming young Prince (The Social Network’s Armie Hammer playing it for all it’s worth) and his travelling companion. Meanwhile, the princess Snow (Phil Collins’ daughter Lily) escapes from the court to see for herself the extent of penury that the Queen’s lavish lifestyle enforces on the poverty-stricken citizens of their kingdom. Mortified, the Queen demands that her manservant Brighton (the excellent Nathan Lane) take Snow into the forest and murder her. Unable to carry out the hideous plot, Brighton tells Snow to leave and never return. Left for dead in the freezing forest, Snow is rescued by the seven dwarfs and, with their help, resolves to challenge the Queen’s reign and restore pride and happiness to the kingdom – just like it was when her father was alive.

Mr Singh’s (The Cell, Immortals) singularly inventive visual flair ensures that Mirror Mirror is never less than visually enthralling – which more than makes up for the extent to which the constant visual flourishes are achieved at the expense of more complex and involving characterisations.

This review was commissioned by the Geraldton Newspaper Group.