Mirror Mirror ☆☆☆½

Even though this film was slated upon arrival I think I must have been in the right mood because I thoroughly enjoyed it. I even enjoyed it more than Snow White and the Huntsman which is why it deserves the extra half star to Kristen Stewart's real life love triangle. I also didn't pay for it as Love Film are currently trying to woo me with free films so that probably has helped the rating and this review too!

I am not going to describe the plot because, refreshingly, it actually follows the conventions of the original Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs fairytale.

Firstly, there are SEVEN dwarfs. Not eight. And they have been played by DWARFS. Not mini versions of British actors in a 'we're not copying the Hobbits' but blatently are style. And these guys rock, completely living up to the expectations of the viewer and providing some lovely comic moments. They aren't called Happy Sleepy Dopey etc but they do have some good names and matching personalities, there is Butcher the butcher (played by a wonderful actor called Martin Klebba who is probably most famous for being in Scrubs), Grimm the teacher, Napoleon who wears a magnificent hat and does makeovers, and my personal favourite Grub who, you know, eats all the time.

Secondly Snow White looks like Snow White. Her hair is black, her skin is white, her lips (after Napoleon dabbles with some fruit juice) are rosy red. She is played by Lily Collins who is far more convincing as Snow than Ms Stewart. This is perhaps unfair as I think I gave her a fairly positive review, but, there was no love triangle in this film (apart from Julia Roberts trying to marry Armie Hammer) so I am already remembering parts of the film fondly rather than wishing I hadn't just witnessed another Twilight film.
Back to Lily, she is great. I loved her in The Blind Side (if you haven't seen it then go, now, Sandra Bullock won an Oscar for this the same year she won a Razzie!), and she doesn't seem overwhelmed by the enormity of being a Princess.

Of course the film isn't burdened on her shoulders alone. Julia Roberts has the fun task of playing the evil step-mother/Queen. And I truly believe she had fun with it. She loses her focus when Armie Hammer's bare chest is on show (well who wouldn't?), has conversations with herself in the Mirror (which I'll come back to), and has a great time making Nathan Lane squirm as her manservant Brighton. It is possibly one of my favourite Julia Robert's performances because she just seems to relish it so much.

I enjoyed that the conversations with the Mirror began with the Queen saying 'Mirror Mirror on the wall' which then turned her mirror into a portal, taking her to a strange hut full of mirrors where she could converse with her reflection in peace. It was intriguing that the Mirror Queen had an American accent where real-life Queen was English, however I imagine that was to highlight that she wasn't simply talking to herself in the mirror.

The film suffers from the same lack of cohesion with accents as the film Penelope does, where you were never quite sure if they were in the USA or the UK but James McAvoy should have been allowed to be Scottish regardless! Snow White was American and her Dad British, the Prince American and his lackey British...perhaps there was a theme of the Brits being evil/slightly rubbish. Ah well, not that it matters, the real Snow White was German so who cares what the accent is as long as there are no subtitles for my tired brain to deal with!

As for the Prince, played with some kind of fierce joy by Armie Hammer (another graduate of that Facebook film I have yet to watch), he was so much fun! He was pompous, funny, gorgeous, and not afraid to play the fool as he attempted to embody 'puppy love'. Actually that reminds me of one of my favourite scenes where he absolutely went puppy crazy over Julia Roberts whose laughter, I am positive, was real.

There are some cracking one-liners in this film - after the sappy declaration that it is about time the Princess did the saving not the Prince, Armie Hammer gets to respond with "No! Its a successful story - there have been focus groups!"

The film differs to the original story on one important point, Snow White is never tricked into eating poison and woken by her Prince. Instead, like the above sappy quote points out, it is the Princess' turn to do the saving. This I didn't mind because it wasn't sticking to the original plot very well, the dwarfs were bandits on stilts rather than diamond miners, but it all worked. Essentially, there was no love triangle to feel awkward about, no Kristen Stewart pulling odd faces at the camera, and I was a fan of the Spice Girls so I don't mind a bit of Girl Power now and then.

Directed by Tarsem Singh, the film had his stamp of being beautiful and colourful. The only other film I have seen of his is The Cell and, although I didn't like it, I found the visuals to be quite stunning. The same is true here, the colours are masterfully put together as the scenes from the village have everyone and everything so grey while Snow White sparkles in gold, and the ballroom scene where only the Queen, the Prince, and Snow White's red lips have any kind of pallor apart from beige.

He also brings his Bollywood influence to the film and it ends on a strange but rather well thought out final song and dance, as Bollywood films are known to do. It also proves that Lily Collins can sing like her Dad, and lets Armie continue to be funny as he awkwardly gets pulled into the dancing.

This film was funny, it was silly, and there were some good actors living up to their characters. You didn't need to take the film seriously, it didn't want you to. It wanted you to laugh, and I did.