The Review - Mirror Mirror

Okay, after reading my gushing review of Tarsem Singh’s “The Fall”, you would probably have been able to tell I’m quite a fan of his work. So I was quite curious to see what he would create in Mirror Mirror, the kind-of-recently-released retelling of Snow White. Not curious enough to shell out $15 to go see it at the movies, but curious enough to spend $4 when it came out at the DVD store. It’s called budgeting, people - I only see movies that I have to see.

 

So I watched Mirror Mirror with my sister-in-law Bex, who is really the best judge when it comes to these kinds of movies, because she knows her fairytales better than anyone I know and can tell straight away if they’ve butchered the original story rather than just adding in a few clever twists. For the record, she loved this retelling. I think it’s actually the script that makes the movie, more than anything else. It’s very witty, by which I mean old-fashioned, laugh-out-loud kind of funny. It’s also quite family friendly, which is kind of a novelty for non-animated films these days.

I thought Julia Roberts did a great job as the evil queen - she and Nathan Lane were definitely highlights. The storyline doesn’t deviate too much from the original: Snow White is just as beautiful and sweet as ever, the prince falls in love with her, but unfortunately the Evil Queen also has a thing for the prince. Snow White is taken in by a rebellious group of outcast dwarfs, and she convinces them to fight against the queen. So yeah, kind of predictable but so much fun.

The costumes are also amazing. I believe it was nominated for a costume design award at the 2012 Oscars. 

Interestingly, Tarsem Singh was reluctant to name the film, and until filming was complete it was known only as "The Untitled Snow White Project". In the end he was disappointed with the name Mirror Mirror, confessing in an interview that he would have preferred the title Snow. 

Also of note: if you do watch the movie, keep in mind that all the beauty treatments the Queen undergoes are actually real treatments you can get at spas all over the world. Among the real ones are: the bird poop paste, the chocolate mask (or clay - it's not clear which it is since it's brown), the snake massage, the snail slime, the maggots and the tiny fishes that eat away dead skin cells. One of the few fake treatments shown is the bee sting to the lips to plump them up, although lip plumpers really do contain  irritants (usually botanical or chemical, not insectoid). I just recommend you don’t try any of these at home.

The trailer for your enjoyment:

Until next time :)