verdoux: November 2012

snow white and the huntsman

Kristen Stewart / Charlize Theron / Chris Hemsworth / Sam Spruell / Sam Claflin / Ian McShane /

Bob Hoskins / Ray Winstone / Nick Frost / Eddie Marsan / Toby Jones / Lily Cole /  Screenplay by

  Evan Daugherty, John Lee Hancock & Hossein Amini  / Art Direction by  Andrew Ackland Snow,

Alastair Bullock, John Frankish  / Production Design by  Dominic Watkins  / Soundtrack by  James Newton Howard

  Cinematog. by  Grieg Fraser  / Editing by  Conrad Buff IV & Neil Smith  / Produced by  Laurie Boccaccio & G. S. Borders

  Directed by  Rupert Sanders

*

Lips red as blood, hair black as night..

..bring me your heart, my dear, dear Snow White

*

Universal certainly have given us a decidedly dark take on the Snow White fairy-tale, with some wonderfully evocative set pieces, and a fresh injection of realism.. albeit with a liberal helping of shiny prism lens flare. Gone is the saccharine Max-Factor Snow White, and in her place stands (or sort of slumps in angsty teenage fashion) Kristen Stewart, the reigning spirit of Emo-cool, shabby-chic.. complete with dirty fingernails and unkempt hair. Sam Spruell, plucked from a plethora of British TV mini-dramas, does the whole Prince Charming bit with aplomb, but shouldn’t really bother, since we all know that Kristen Stewart prefers a ‘bit of rough’ from the wild woodlands. Said ‘bit of rough’, with a mock Scottish accent you need crane an ear to follow, is Chris Hemsworth, an Australian actor better known these days as the Mighty Thor (decidedly the worst of last year’s Avengers franchise movies).. For evil foes, we have the splendidly nordic looking Charlize Theron as wicked Queen Ravenna, stealing the youth from young maidens to maintain her eternal beauty.. and her vile brother ‘Finn’, so drained of all independence and goodness by his cloying sister, that he almost seems sucked of colour to the point of becoming an albino.. played with wonderful relish by the superb Sam Spruell, with an exceedingly amusing haircut. You’ll need to wait it out till the 2nd half for the, er.. eight dwarfs to turn up, but they’re more than worth their weight in gold, lining up such quality heavyweights as Ian McShane, Ray Winstone, Toby Jones.. and the superb Bob Hoskins, for whom this role marks his retirement after 40 years of outstanding performances.

The real magic of the film is in the exceptional quality of the sets, costumes and effects, all of which have been so lovingly constructed that they are nothing short of breathtaking. Nordic trolls; intricate explosions into clouds of doves and ravens; hallucinatory tumbles through writhing woodlands.. all more impressive than the last. Acting-wise the quality is not so constant. Some of the accents are a little heavy handed, and the dialogue overly simplistic at times. Charlize Theron, looks magnificent and regal throughout (even curiously during her aging sequences), but while she acts wonderfully with her expressions and gestures, she's ultimately let down a little by her habit of strange pauses in dialogue, while over concentrating on her English pronunciation. There’s is something interesting about her English tone, but perhaps she should have kept her American accent.. or reached a compromise. Stewart’s less formal English accent is the more believable, but has it’s own occasional mishaps. By far the most moving moments in the film occur around the dwarfs, who give a little masterclass (no pun intended) in a peculiarly British resonance of performance, and jocular humour. Hoskins stands out as a sort of blind, Homeric seer, whose class manages to add a particular depth to what is otherwise fairly simple dialogue.

If there is a criticism to made of the dwarf characters themselves, it’s that they do blatantly follow the Hollywood construct of a Merry Olde England, peopled by an odd hotch-potch of Scottish, Northern & Irish stereotypes to the point of cultural insult. Though nowhere near as shocking as the peculiarly cartoon like Irish characters of Ridley Scott’s ‘Legend’, or the farcical cabinet of cultural curiosities in Ron Howard’s ‘Far and Away’. Although Snow White is a fairy-tale, and as such meant to be a colourful exaggeration by nature, this version nevertheless is attempting to tell the tale with a sharper clarity of realism.. and as such dances a difficult line between the two states. On the whole it does this with a reasonable level of success, which offers a respectful nod to the Disney cartoon forerunner, but at the same time manages to keep a polite distance. Some scenes are very much reminiscent of ‘Lord of the Rings’, with a rain-soaked trek across gorgeous, dramatic mountainscapes (in Scotland this time, as opposed to New Zealand), only occasionally dabbling with the CGI magic box, which films like ‘The Chronicles of Nania’ trip and fall headfirst into. The film clocks in at ten minutes shy of three hours, and rides along at an entertaining pace, without dragging unduly. The ending is fairly satisfying, but some sort of a prologue to complete the love aspect of the tale, and to tie up loose ends would have been nice. Especially considering the time taken to establish the characters and plots.

One rather glaring inconsistency is with the nature of Snow White herself, who throughout the majority of the film is portrayed as the girl who is eternally beautiful of heart, as opposed to the transient, physical beauty of the wicked Queen. When the Huntsman takes a moment to attempt teaching Snow White a few basic defensive moves and thrusts with her dagger, we are in no uncertain terms informed that Snow White would never take a life, and as the personification of pure good, this is quite understandable. Except, when we come to the battle scenes of the final push against the Queen's wicked regime, we are confronted with a sword wielding Snow White in a nice shiny suit of armour. I suppose this goes to the very heart of the problem.. while attempting to combine fairy tale simplicity with the raw qualities of realism, a conflict between the two approaches naturally occurs, and the necessary compromises jar one way or the other. With the evil Queen we have a nice little back-story to explain her behavior and sour perspective upon men and the world. This helps to fuel the three dimensional qualities of the story, and make us question the pure nature of good and evil. All very well, except that when we are shown the fairy world that Snow White is at harmony with, we are presented with a flat, brightly coloured cartoon-like universe, that disappoints and confounds the hard won reality of the rest of the film. Quite clearly the producers were adamant that they wanted nice publicity shots of Kristin in a lovely, shiny suit of armour, since it worked so well for Milla Jovovich as Joan of Arc (okay, the film itself bombed, but we all remember that image of Milla in gleaming silver, don't we?), and to honest, who can blame them?

If I were to hand out prizes, then Kristen Stewart would get a clanging pat on the back for best best looking girl in a suit of armour.. Charlize Theron for most ridiculously beautiful evil-type person in a motion picture.. a vigorous shake of the hand to whoever made the Evil Queen’s fabulous throne.. and above all.. Bob Hoskins for sheer class and gravitas. Cheers Bob!

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