Movie
Review 1/6/12
SNOW WHITE AND
THE HUNTSMAN
2012
Starring:
Kristen Stewart, Charlize Theron, Chris Hemsworth, Sam Claflin
Directed
by: Rupert Sanders
This must be a pretty twisted world,
where Kristen Stewart is fairer than Charlize Theron. Okay, there’s that joke
out of the way. Snow White, one of the Western world’s best-known fairy tales,
gets another go-round and is given the “Grimm” treatment and takes place in a
fairly twisted world– fitting, as it did all begin with a Grimm Brothers story.
At the hands of first-time feature filmmaker Rupert Sanders, who has done
commercials for the likes of Axe, Nike and Guinness, Snow White (Stewart) becomes
a Joan of Arc-like warrior figure who charges into battle to avenge the death
of her father at the hands of a wicked queen.
Said wicked queen Ravenna (Theron) tricks
her way into becoming the wife of King Magnus (Noah Huntley), after his wife
dies of an illness. Ravenna kills the king and usurps his throne, locking his
daughter Snow White in a castle tower and proceeds with a reign of terror, with
her brother Finn (Sam Spruell) by her side. When Snow White escapes into the
dark forest, she forcefully hires the drunken Huntsman (Hemsworth) to capture
her. However, he decides to aid the fugitive princess, and the two run into the
seven dwarves and Snow’s childhood sweetheart Prince William (Claflin) along
the way. They assemble a revolution to storm the castle and take Ravenna down.
It’s most appropriate to draw a
comparison not with the other Snow White film released this year, but with last
year’s Water for Elephants. Both movies feature sweeping period settings and
gorgeous art direction, wonderful costumes, evocative musical scores by James
Newton Howard, an Academy-Award winner as the villain (Christoph Waltz in Elephants and Charlize Theron here) and,
most notably, an out-of-place Twilight
star who is incapable of shouldering lead player responsibilities (Robert
Pattinson in Elephants and Kristen
Stewart here).
The film goes to a great deal of
effort to establish an atmosphere, and in that regard it succeeds. It goes for
a quasi-medieval, fantasy-peppered feel – you could call it “Game of Therons”. Once
Ravenna takes over as queen, the kingdom is engulfed in a certain bleakness and
all life is quenched. The dark forest is all noxious gas, insect swarms,
snakelike vines and thorns. In contrast, “Sanctuary”, the abode of the fairies,
is a beautifully whimsical enchanted forest that stops short of singing birds
and dancing squirrels. The final charge along the beach looks suitably epic, and
the actual location of the Marloes Sands beach in Pembrokeshire, UK enhances
that war movie effect.
Colleen Atwood, oft-collaborator of
Tim Burton, handles costume design responsibilities and the outfits created for
Ravenna are of note. They perfectly convey the deadly mix of treacherous danger
and beauty by incorporating feathers, bones and other darker motifs with fitted
couture. It’s far less silly than the stuff Julia Roberts wears in Mirror
Mirror, that’s for sure. James Newton Howard’s score absolutely lifts the movie
and brings to mind romantic-era opuses.
Charlize Theron is, as expected, a
marvellous evil queen. Her performance drips with menace and she clearly enjoys
the chance to chew the beautiful scenery for all it’s worth. She shouts orders,
sucks the life force from defenseless girls, bathes in a milky rejuvenating
liquid and even paces the castle floor. One could argue that her Machiavellian portrayal
teeters very close to being ridiculous and at times it would not be out of
place in a He-Man cartoon, but then again it does fit the approach taken with
the material. Ravenna needs to be scary, and damned if Theron isn’t. Sam
Spruell as the Queen’s brother is probably creepiness incarnate and matches Theron
in gritted-teeth evil and makes for a memorable henchman.
It may seem like the easy route for
a critic to take, but once again, everything is Kristen Stewart’s fault. The
actress is infamous for failing to summon any emotion in her performances,
which may have worked in the Twilight films as her character was pretty much a
blank canvas on which young female audiences could project their fantasies, but
here threatens to discredit the hard work everyone else has put in. Snow White
is meant to possess other-worldly beauty and an inextinguishable life force, but
the forest itself is less wooden than her. Her acting against Charlize
Theron is something like fighting a
towering inferno with a spray bottle. The girl just cannot carry a movie, let
alone put on a suit of armour and charge into battle astride a noble steed.
How about the other half of the
title, the Huntsman? It’s pretty hard to think of Hemsworth as anybody else
than Thor, but the Huntsman isn’t all that different from that role. He’s a
tough, alcoholic bruiser with a tortured past who takes on the role of mentor
to Snow White, with something of a Scottish accent. He does look a wee bit too
clean, but is masculine enough to pull it off anyway. Sam Claflin, last seen in
Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides, seems to be stuck playing the love
interest in period movies. He doesn’t share very much chemistry with K-Stew,
which is probably more her fault than is. The director has said that he wanted
to make a British gangster film and had his ideal cast for that film play the
seven dwarves. Somehow, it really works – there’s a bit of a kick to be had
seeing usually intimidating character actors shrunk down and singing round a
bonfire.
This movie purports itself as the
Snow White we haven’t seen before, but it fits comfortably into the medieval
fantasy genre and is a competent example of that kind of film. It tries to be a
dark and sweeping epic, and for the most part achieves that goal, helped along
by some great art direction and Charlize Theron at her fairy tale villainess
best. Thankfully, Kristen Stewart in all her blandness, despite failing to fit
into the setting at all and playing a title character to boot, doesn’t ruin all
of this. Phew.
SUMMARY:
You’d be right to doubt Kristen Stewart’s ability to pull the part off, but be
wrong to completely write this serviceable movie off.
RATING:
3.5/5 STARS
Jedd
Jong