Review of Mirror Mirror

The evil Queen (Julia Roberts) on the Movie poster

When it comes to fairy tales (particularly Disney ones) Snow White has to be one of my favourites-with the gorgeous, pale-skinned and wide eyed princess, the dashing, heroic prince, the evil step mother, and of course the 7 archetypical dwarfs, what’s not to like?  So obviously I had some expectations, based on the trailer and based on the narrative I already knew.

I did find it rather amusing that the Evil stepmother/Queen (played by Julia Roberts) kept making sarcastic comments about Snow White’s beauty, saying that her hair is raven and not black and ‘of course her skin is so good she’s never seen the light of day.’ Her argument with Prince Alcott (played by the very handsome Armie Hammer-Gossip Girl anyone?) was one of my favourite moments: he raves on about how Snow White is the most beautiful woman he’s ever seen, and she says simply ‘Agree to Disagree’. Brilliant.

The Gorgeous Prince Alcott (Armie Hammer) :)

Snow White (Lily Collins) and her cheeky 7 Dwarfs! :)

The funniest characters were in my opinion the dwarfs; even though they didn’t have the traditional names (sneezy, sleepy dopey, etc.) They did have their own names, Napoleon, Half pint (such a good name), Grub, Grimm, Wolf, Butcher and Chuckles. Played in order by Jordan Prentice, Mark Povinelli, Joe Gnoffo, Danny Woodburn, Sebastian Saraceno, Martin Klebba and Ronald Lee Clark. Each character has his own little quirk, as tradition for the 7 dwarfs, and they were equally as lovable, but not initially. In the story, they are thieves who steal from the Queen, and they live in the woods because the Queen considered them ‘undesirables’ and exiled them. Half pint is probably my favourite character, as he is clearly head over heels in love with Snow White, which is a constant joke throughout the film-he gets a girlfriend in the end though which is nice.

There is an interesting twist at the end, (don’t read if you don’t want to know the ending!!) it tells you in the beginning that they father of Snow White mysteriously disappears, and you assume that he was probably killed by a beast that patrolled the woods, but it becomes apparent that the evil Queen uses magic to get what she wants (but that comes with consequences, which you also see at the end), and ultimate magic that she uses is a necklace to trap and transform the King (played by Sean Bean) into a half dragon/half werewolf type creature. This spell becomes broken, however and the King is transformed back to his human self, much to the joy of Snow, and much to the misery of the evil Queen.

The only thing that really put me off the film was the ending, where Lily Collins, who plays Snow White, sings and does a kind of bindi-esque dance with the Dwarfs. It is all rather odd and it put me off, luckily it was at the end, otherwise I may have walked out.

The King (Sean Bean) 

To sum up, a pretty good film, definitely something I would recommend for someone with a childish heart who appreciates some dark humour and Armie Hammer topless (!)