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Julia Roberts has built a career on lovable characters. She’s played all kinds of hard-working, small-town girls and adorable romantic leads, capturing her audience’s heart again and again with each new role. After decades of typecasting, then, the last thing that her loyal fans would expect is to see sweet, lovable, wide-smiling Julia playing the villain—but it’s that unexpected delight that gives director Tarsem Singh’s Mirror Mirror its strangely irresistible appeal.
In the first Snow White movie of the year (the one not starring Kristen Stewart), Roberts stars as the legendary evil queen. After her husband, the king, is killed by a beast in the forest, she quickly takes over the kingdom. The only thing threatening her claim to the throne (not to mention her sheer vanity) is her pretty young stepdaughter, Snow White (Lily Collins)—so she makes sure to keep Snow locked safely away in her room.
On Snow White’s eighteenth birthday, the palace’s servants persuade her to venture out, to see what’s become of the kingdom. When she sees how impoverished the people have become during the queen’s rule, she vows to do something to stop her evil stepmother. She hopes to convince a visiting prince (Armie Hammer) to help her regain control of the kingdom—but she’ll have to keep him from falling under the spell of the queen, who intends to marry him.
Singh’s slightly twisted take on the classic fairy tale is another grand, visual spectacle, filled with magical settings, elaborate CGI effects, and vibrant fairy tale costumes. It’s playful and whimsical, and—most importantly—it’s not afraid to have a little bit of fun. Though Singh turns Snow White into a more modern heroine—one with a deadly combination of beauty, brains, and brawn—he still plays with some of the usual fairy tale stereotypes. Hammer’s Prince Alcott, for instance, is bold and adventurous and eager to take on any challenge, but he’s also remarkably pompous and just slightly dim. He’s generally a bumbling character—one who’s manipulated by the queen almost as easily as he’s overtaken by the tiny bandits who live in the forest.
Best of all, however, is Roberts, whose evil queen is snarky and mean and wonderfully sarcastic from the very beginning of the film. It may be the lovely Snow White’s story, but Roberts is absolutely gorgeous in her queenly regalia—and it’s such a rare delight to see her verbally assaulting anyone within shouting distance and putting handsome princes under her evil spell that she easily steals the film.
Still, while Singh tries to mix the more action-packed aspects of the classic tale with some playful new additions, the result sometimes feels a bit unbalanced. The film is often undeniably, unapologetically silly and over the top—sometimes a bit too much so. But the story itself isn’t all that interesting. Toward the end, the novelty wears off and the pacing lags—and instead of eagerly awaiting the final showdown, you might find yourself wanting to get it over with already.
Mirror Mirror is definitely a visual delight—and, at times, a fun-filled fairy tale, too. But even an evil Julia Roberts can’t keep it from losing some of its magic in the end.
Blu-ray Review:
The Blu-ray release of the more fanciful of this year’s Snow White movies comes complete with a few appropriately whimsical extras. On the disc’s special features menu, you’ll find a handful of the usual deleted scenes, as well as a short making-of feature, Looking Through the Mirror, which offers a brief look behind the scenes of a Tarsem Singh production—from his vision and energy to his faithful team of collaborators.
The disc also includes a few unexpected extras—like I Believe I Can Dance, which takes viewers step-by-step through the choreography of the Bollywood musical number that closes the film. For a quick overview of the story, there’s the interactive Mirror Mirror Storybook. Or, for a little bit of silliness, there’s Prince and Puppies, in which a panel of cute, cuddly puppies comment on Armie Hammer’s puppy-like performance.
Though the deleted scenes offer a few more fun moments with Julia Roberts and Nathan Lane, if you’ve got some time to spare, I recommend starting with Looking Through the Mirror. This short behind-the-scenes feature will give you a short but sweet introduction to this imaginative director and his talented crew, and it’s well worth a few minutes of your time.
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