A Grim "Snow White"

Kristen Stewart has picked up some bad habits, hasn't she? I've purposefully avoided the "Twilight" films and didn't manage to catch her in anything else in the last couple of years, so I didn't realize how poor her acting had gotten. I was willing to give her the benefit of the doubt, but she didn't seem to be paying attention half the time in "Snow White and the Huntsman." I'm still trying to decide if she was miscast or if she just didn't have it in her to play the role. To be fair, it wasn't much of a role. If you've seen the posters, you've got a good idea of what the filmmakers were going for in this version of "Snow White." What we have here is a dark and gloomy action movie doused in CGI imagery, where the princess is obliged to strap on plate armor and ride into battle alongside her Prince Charming and a hunky Huntsman.

The evil Queen Ravenna (Charlize Theron) marries and murders Snow White's father as a prelude to her conquest of his kingdom. Thanks to magic, she can stay young and beautiful forever by draining the life out of others. She keeps Snow White as a prisoner for years until she comes of age, intending to consume her pure heart to gain immortality. When the girl escapes into the Black Forest, Ravenna sends her loathsome brother Finn (Sam Spruell) and a drunkard Huntsman (Chris Hemsworth) they have forcibly recruited, to go after her. Snow White is intent on reaching the castle of her father's ally, the Duke (Vincent Regan), to rally his army against Ravenna. Meanwhile the Duke's son William (Sam Clafin), Snow White's childhood friend, learns of her escape. He joins Finn's group incognito to find and rescue her.

Director Rupert Sanders has a great visual eye. He pulls off some absolutely gorgeous fairy-tale visuals that should put him in high demand with the studios for future effects spectaculars. However, the visuals are about all he's got. "Snow White and the Huntsman" is very weak in other areas. The dialogue is dull, the editing is uneven, and the pacing is awful. There are several segments where the film slows to a crawl, usually when it's trying to advance the lukewarm romances between Snow White and her suitors. The Huntsman and the Queen are the most compelling characters of the lot, thanks to the efforts of Chris Hemsworth and Charlize Theron. The Queen in particular is probably going to be what the film is remembered for, especially Theron's scenery-gnashing, over-the-top performance. That approach didn't really work in "Prometheus," but it's a good fit here.

Oh, the dwarves? They show up very late in the picture, but they do show up, and they're some of the film's better special effects. A digitally shrunken Bob Hoskins, Ian McShane, Toby Jones, Eddie Marsan, Ray Winstone, and Nick Frost, among others, lend their support to Snow White's cause. They're a rough bunch, but do add some much-needed moments of humor and fun in a movie that is too often lacking both. And considering the caliber of the acting talent, I don't understand why the dwarves aren't in more of the movie. I can see the logistical problems of having all seven throughout, but how about just one of them? As is, the dwarves just show up suddenly without any forewarning, and because of the changed dynamics of the plot, they never get as much attention as they should. Even the "Mirror, Mirror" dwarves are better differentiated and get more of the spotlight.

Speaking of "Mirror, Mirror," the two adaptations don't have much in common at all. "Mirror, Mirror" is aimed at a younger crowd and their parents, while "Snow White and the Huntsman" wants to appeal to the same action-hungry audience that went to see "Clash of the Titans" and the Russell Crowe "Robin Hood." "Snow White" pays lip service to the romance, but it's much more concerned about fights with CGI creatures, battle sequences, and badassery. There's very little blood, but a lot of violence and stony-faced intensity. The Queen's transformations and attack spells may also be too much for younger kids to take. "Snow White" has a few places where it shows off typically beautiful fantasy visuals, but on the whole it's much grimmer and bleaker.

And this brings us back to Kristen Stewart, who I'm sorry to say does not carry the film the way she should. Visually she fits the style, and she's not actually required to do much acting for most of the film, but when Stewart is put front in center, her choices are so odd and so lacking, her performance becomes more of a distraction than anything else. Like the film, she's very pretty, but seems awfully confused, and ultimately does not deliver.
---