Monday, April 2, 2012

Movie Moment: Mirror Mirror

With the emergence of ABC's "Once Upon a Time" and movies like Mirror Mirror and this summer's Snow White and the Huntsman, the popularity of Snow White is at an all-time high.  I had the good fortune to see Mirror Mirror this past Sunday, marking my first trip to the movies in more than a month.  Star-starved as I was, I enjoyed watching Julia Roberts's evil queen, Lily Collins's (yes, she of Phil Collins lineage) Snow White, and Armie Hammer's prince charming.  In this rendition we get a modernized glimpse into the queen's motivations as well as a PC spin on the damsel in distress song and dance.  This time it's Snow White who rescues the prince, proving that a girl can have her crown and wear it, too.  The dwarfs are amusing as comic outcasts, as is Nathan Lane as the queen's fumbling and put-upon valet.  Still, the apple doesn't fall too far from the tree.  The tale ultimately follows the plotlines of the original, with winter blossoming into the spring of a royal wedding.

Later that day I delved into "Once Upon a Time's" much darker backstory of how the queen got to be so wicked.  It made for an interesting contrast to the frothier Mirror Mirror, underscoring that there are many sides to a single story.  Apparently, the queen began life as a nice, normal lovestruck girl.  But then her mother murdered her fiance (as so often happens in these sorts of setups), a turn of events unwittingly precipitated by a child-aged Snow White.  As they say, all heck broke loose, and the wicked stepmother persona was born.  I hear that Snow White and the Huntsman promises to be even more disturbing.  Which means that I'll have to skip it.  Psychological thrills can be intriguing, but I can't abide the kind of gore conjured by the word "hunstman."  

2 comments:

ellie said...

Oh, I just had to see what you had to say about Armie. First, who would name their kid that, but I guess they must be witty. Still, he's been badly trashed these days through his divorce and more. I don't know what to think. Still, there has always been something about him that left me a little off. But then again, I thought he was just a poor little rich boy trying to make his way in the world.

The Tote Trove said...

It's so funny that you found this! It's been a minute since I've thought about The Social Network. But yes, it's a shame about Armie. It seems that every time you surf the web you find out about another celeb guy preying on women. Most recently, I've been reading about Thomas Middleditch's atrocious behavior and divorce, and now it's hard for me to watch him in anything.