Film wizardry but no real magic
Film review: Snow White and the Huntsman
Rating: **
There have been two big-budget adaptations of the perennial ‘Snow White’ fairytale just lately.
The first, Mirror Mirror, starring Julia Roberts, took a lighthearted approach to the yarn, packing its running time with family-friendly jokes and japery. The second, Snow White and the Huntsman, with Kirsten Stewart, is decidedly darker and more self-consciously grandiose.
The two adaptations have one characteristic in common, however; an abundance of CGI-wizardry, but a lack of real “magic”.
It’s a shame really, because much of the surface detail in Snow White and the Huntsman is excellent, and has clearly been given a certain amount of thought. The film-makers have manifestly re-watched Disney’s 1937 classic Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (a true cinema masterpiece), and taken the old designs as inspiration for their sets and costumes.
Charlize Theron gets the better part of this deal as the sinister Queen Ravenna, donning a selection of magnificent frocks and headpieces that would make Christian Dior green with envy.
Sadly, though, things quickly start to unravel. Theron possesses a certain icy magnetism in the first act, but finds herself reduced to the role of shrieking pantomime villain within a few scenes.
Similarly, Chris Hemsworth’s Huntsman is initially characterised as an unreliable drunkard, and yet remains unwaveringly faithful (and sober) for much of the rest of the film.
Furthermore, director Rupert Sanders attempts to create a Léon-relationship between Stewart’s Snow White and Hemsworth’s Huntsman (which would have been a novel dynamic), but the end result never progresses beyond the usual odd couple clichés, and ultimately ends on a note of infuriating (but franchise-friendly) ambiguity.
Perhaps most disappointing of all, however, are the cohort of “dwarfs”.
I put dwarfs in inverted commas because these are not, in fact, genuine little people, but a selection of (mostly British, and decidedly full-grown) character actors, digitally altered to look smaller.
If you ever wanted to know what Ray Winstone would look like if he were less than four feet tall, Snow White and the Huntsman might be for you. For everyone else, the presence of these well-known actors in computer-manipulated form just seems a bit weird, and a transparent attempt to inject the kind of dramatic gravitas that Stewart and Hemsworth’s partnership is unable to provide.
Overall, Snow White and the Huntsman is competent, but unremarkable. Much time has been expended on its design, and all credit should go to the small army of costumers, set-builders, and CGI professionals who undoubtedly worked very hard to make this picture look the part.
Unfortunately, a film’s foundations still rest on a traditional trio of acting, writing, and directing; in these key areas, Snow White and the Huntsman just doesn’t make the grade.