Based on the Grimm fairytale Snow White, Mirror Mirror
is an uninspiring and unoriginal 2012 retelling starring Lilly Collins as Snow
White and Julie Roberts as the Wicked Queen. The story differs slightly from
the original fairytale in that it makes Snow more of a feminist hero in keeping
with modern studio tastes. Otherwise it is fairly similar to the story that
everyone knows. The film came out just a couple of months before another
disastrous retelling of the same story, Snow White and the Huntsman and although I didn’t hate this version as much I
certainly didn’t like it.
The best thing that Mirror
Mirror has going for it are its lavish costumes and indeed the film has now
been nominated for an Academy Award in that category joining the likes of W.E. and Transformers: Dark of the Moon as unlikely and infuriating recent
recipients of Oscar nominations in technical categories. Mirror Mirror attempts a lighter tone than Huntsman but the comedy failed to raise a smile from my jaded face.
The film is in the end an overly expensive rehashing of a story which has been
told better in the past.
