Mirror Mirror

Release date: March 15, 2012
Director: Tarsem Singh
Story by: The Brothers Grimm (Jacob & Wilhelm Grimm)
Screenplay by: Jason Keller, Marc Klein, Melisa Wallack
Cast: Julia Roberts, Lily Collins, Arnie Hammer, Nathan Lane, Jordan Prentice, Mark Povinelli, Joe Gnoffo, Danny Woodbum, Sebastian Saraceno, Martin Klebba, Ronald Lee Clark, Sean Bean

We all know the story… Evil Queen, who’s really kind of a witch, wants to be the most beautiful of all the kingdom, so she asks, “Mirror mirror on the wall who’s the fairest of them all?” And she is, until Snow White becomes the fairest… so she decides to kill her.

There’s dwarves involved, and a Prince Charming.

Add to that Tarsem Singh’s visuals, zany dialogue and situations, and you got something fresh. When Julia Roberts as the sickly sweet Evil Queen — remember how sweetly sick Umbridge was described in Order of the Phoenix? — tells us this is not Snow White’s story. All of our focus immediately shifts from Lily Collins to Julia Roberts because, certainly, she’s hilarious in here. Loud in colors, histrionic, and quite campy. Her Evil Queen shines the most when she’s interacting with her not-minions, especially Nathan Lane, who plays her aid, Brighton.

There was a grasshopper joke in there somewhere, but I’m not sure since I saw it in a Latino dub. Now, I’m usually really bothered with dubbed films, but in here, the comical side of things shone through that dubbing. It was either really great voice-acting, or the humor translated really well. Having said that, I can’t wait to watch Mirror Mirror in its original English audio.

Now, I’m not saying that Lily Collins is a weak lead. I actually think she did fairly fine in her scenes with the dwarves, which were equally as entertaining — and generally more like Girl Power than just lamenting on how her people were starving. In the meantime, people who watch a lot of television would be familiar with Mark Povinelli (Half Pint), Danny Woodburn (Grimm), and Martin Klebba (Butcher) — and really, Peter Dinklage was missing, but he’s kicking all sorts of butt in Game of Thrones.

My only complaint with Mirror Mirror is the pacing. Singh had a really dynamic idea going on, and he worked great with his cast and crew to keep the humor (and some action) going, but it seemed like he didn’t know when to cut the scene to leave you laughing. One scene immediately comes to mind: the slapping of Prince Charming. Everyone went at it, leaving poor Armie Hammer acting like a puppy for more than we wanted to care for.

Some interesting things to point out, while we’re building new female archetypes on our fairy tales, the princes are having it rough. Think about Prince Edward in Enchanted.

Also… Sean Bean broke away from the dead guy typecast! LOL

Rating: ★★★¼☆ 

amy

YAM Magazine editor, photographer, blogger, translator and part-time web designer. Film junkie, music junkie… and lately series (a.k.a. TV) junkie.

14 Responses

  1. Rodrigo says:

    “Also… Sean Bean broke away from the dead guy typecast! LOL”

    I saw Flightplan (the film with Jodie Foster on a plane looking for her daughter) and he didn’t die there, which surprised me.

    I thought Mirror Mirror was good and better than what the trailers seem to show (it made it seem like it would suck ass). Roberts was stellar here and the dwarfs were great too (gotta respect Singh for using real-life dwarfs unlike Huntsman). But I agree with the pacing being a problem, especially during the second half.

    • amy says:

      @Rodrigo, OH YEAH! Flightplan!! xD

      I think it matched my expectations of the film… visually a little less, but the pacing of the film is what I have learned to expect with Singh’s filmography. xD

  2. You know, you may have convinced me to have a look at this one. Part of me wanted it to be fun. I remember when the first trailer came out and everyone said horrible things about it and I kept thinking “Yeah, I don’t know, this might be entertaining.”

    We’ll see…

    • amy says:

      @Craig Kennedy, I remember 99% of the bloggers were like “this looks horrible compared to Huntsman, which looks so cool!” I thought they were missing the point of the movie…

      I think it’s demise… as a children’s movie… is that it’s got pretty adult humor. I think that’s why everyone praised all of the sequences with the dwarfs, because they were the more generally entertaining – I remember the kids in the theater laughing at their scenes the most…

      • @amy, Honestly, I know I’m technically a part of it but I think for the most part the collective internet has its head up its ass. Anytime something comes along that doesn’t quite fit into an easily describable box, it gets dumped on (coughcoughJohnCartercough)

        Is it any wonder Hollywood keeps making sequels and prequels and remakes and comic book movies?

        • amy says:

          @Craig Kennedy, hahaha! I actually didn’t like John Carter much (though I had different issues that had little to do with the genres). I was going to write a review on that after this one xD

          I actually like it a lot when things don’t fit in boxes. The more “genre” tags I add to a review, I think I tend to find more interesting.

        • amy says:

          @Craig Kennedy, just re-watched this in English. I think the dubbing is funnier, but I think I liked the ending better this time around. LOL

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