Snow White – Snow White (2012)

Directed by: Tarsem Singh | 106 minutes | drama, comedy, fantasy | Actors: Julia Roberts, Lily Collins, Armie Hammer, Sean Bean, Nathan Lane, Mare Winningham, Michael Lerner, Robert Emms, Martin Klebba, Danny Woodburn, Sebastian Saraceno, Ronald Lee Clark, Bonnie Bentley

Grimm’s well-known fairy tale Snow White will receive no fewer than two feature film variants in 2012. In addition to the action film with a dark fantasy edge ‘Snow White and the Huntsman’ by debut director Rupert Sanders, visionary filmmaker Tarsem Singh comes with the beautifully designed and more family-friendly ‘Snow White’ (‘Snow White’).

Julia Roberts plays the role of the evil stepmother/queen, whose main concerns are her rapidly dwindling cash supply and her rapidly aging skin. For the first problem, she has a solution that is as old as the folk legend itself: to marry a rich man. And let it just now enter the castle. But at a masquerade ball, this prince Alcott (played by Armie Hammer) appears to have more eye for the young Snow White, who has just turned eighteen, also known as Snow (Lily, daughter of Phil, Collins). This is unfortunately noticed by the queen, who immediately sends her servile sidekick (Nathan Lane) to rid Snow’s slender body of her vital organs in the forest. Just like in the fairy tale, however, the Queen’s footsteps can’t get over his heart and he releases Snow White.

Earlier we saw how Prince Alcott and his traveling companion Renbock are ambushed by a group of highwaymen. They are left embarrassingly behind, but Snow, who treats herself to a walk through what is actually her kingdom on her birthday, is the one who frees them from the predicament. Alcott wants revenge, but when Snow is left in the snowy birch forest, she is taken right in by that band of highwaymen… It is, of course, the seven dwarfs, who disguise themselves as giants during their raids. Snow White – who has been informed by the aforementioned walk about how bad the prosperity of the kingdom is – persuades the dwarves to return the tax money to the population and after a short period of familiarization becomes leader of the Robin Hood-like team.

You will occasionally run out of eyes to process all the beauty that the director of previous sensory treats such as ‘The Cell’ and ‘The Fall’ offers you. But despite the convincing pomp and circumstance with which Tarsem Singh has brought the script written by Jason Keller and Marc Klein to the silver screen, ‘Snow White’ does not quite catch on. The humor is too sparse and the story too boring, too compelling for that. The chemistry between the prince and the princess is virtually absent; much more enjoyable are the scenes where Roberts can barely take her eyes off the prince. Also a comedic highlight is the beauty treatment the Queen undergoes and the sporadic mirror scenes will leave your breath in your throat. Special mention to Tarsem Singh’s former permanent costume designer Eiko Ishioka (who sadly passed away in January 2012), whose creations are likely to be imprinted in your memory, as the catchy closing track “I believe in love” (by Disney composer Alan Menken) is long gone. your head is gone.