Snow White and the Huntsman (2012)

2012 saw the release of two movies based on the Snow White fairy tale: 'Mirror, Mirror,' which released on March 30th and 'Snow White and the Huntsman,' which was released on May 14th. [For my review of 'Mirror, Mirror,' click here.]

Snow White and the Huntsman stars Kristen Stewart as the titular Snow White. How she continues to get casts as the lead in things, I don't know. Yes, her performance in this movie is better than her acting as Bella Swan, the queen of the Twilight series, but that's not saying much. In fact, she's the one real weak link in the movie's acting chain. Emoting has never been Stewart's strength, and this movie is really no exception. It is an improvement over the horrid 'Twilight' movies, but that's not really saying much: her basic expressions are blankly looking scared, confused, or awed (like I said, a small improvement in her acting, since you can actually tell which emotion she's going for at least). 

But, while Stewart's performance is possibly the worst thing about this film (after the convoluted, nonsensical plot and lack of any type of character development), Charlize Theron's performance as Queen Ravenna more than balances it out.  Theron's Ravenna is the perfect mixture of steel and vulnerability. She's calculating, positioning herself as the victim and prisoner of an evil army, so that she can easily seduce King Magnus and become his queen. She's cold-hearted, brutally murdering the King on their wedding night and sucking the life out of young maidens in order to maintain her own beauty. Ravenna could have been played as pure, cold-hearted, remorseless evil, but Theron takes her lines and imbues them with pain and vulnerability. You get the sense that something bad happened to her once and her quest to be all powerful stems from never wanting to be at someone else's mercy and be hurt ever again. It's a performance not to be missed.

Chris Hemsworth also gives a strong performance. You believe that the Huntsman is a good guy, even though he has no problem selling someone to a slave merchant and he's agreed to bring the Queen someone's heart. After all, his hardness comes from guilt over his wife's death and he agrees to serve the Queen on the promise of bringing his dead wife back to life. Through little moments, you believe that Snow melts his heart and he falls for her.  Sam Claflin did what he could with the one-dimensional Duke's son, William,  but William is there only to fill the Prince Charming role. He's written like a love-sick puppy dog, and Claflin does what he can with it. Neither has any real chemistry with Stewart (but that's more because I have yet to see her have chemistry with anyone) but they live their characters in a believable way.

The action is enjoyable - as long as you don't try to put too much thinking into it. The basic story is this: Ravenna pretends to be a victim to meet the King. He takes her as his queen. Something about Snow White's natural beauty and magnetism gives her pause. "By fairest blood it is done and only by fairest blood can it be undone." She decides to lock Snow up in a tower rather than just killing her, because "One never knows when royal blood may be of value." Ravenna's evil causes the land to die and people's hope to die with it.  When Snow comes of age - 8 years later -- the Queen's power begins to fade. Her Mirror tells her that Show is the cause, so Ravenna decides to finally kill her. Conveniently, Snow finally figures out a way to escape. (Why she didn't figure it out before then, I don't know.)

Snow is aided in her escape by some Magpies and a White Mare that just happens to be waiting for her to ride. Of course, she falls off the horse and runs into the Dark Forest, where 'shroom spores make her hallucinate and she eventually collapses.  (Never thought that scene in the Disney cartoon was caused by 'shrooms, but it makes sense.)

Ravenna's brother, Finn, recruits the Huntsman to hunt Snow. (They have a weird relationship, Ravenna and Finn. It's almost *too* close.) The Huntsman, whose name is Eric, only agrees once Ravenna promises to resurrect his wife. When Finn and Eric find Snow, Finn gives the lie away and the Huntsman decides to protect Snow instead. They make their way towards William's father's castle and come across a band of *8* dwarves. (One of them dies at one point -- so that there's *7* dwarves. It's kinda like when Dobby dies in Harry Potter, but not sad.)

There's a 'magical' moment between Snow and the White Hart (A huge deer that is king of the forest).  The eldest dwarf, Muir, declares that "She is life itself. She will heal the land. She is the one." Even though she has no magic, Muir declares that she's healed them of all their ailments.  Sure. This moment is broken by Finn, who attacks the Hart (He has to be evil if he's going to attack something that majestic). Eric and Finn battle. Finn taunts Eric about killing his wife, which is a mistake. Eric's righteous anger drives him to win, impaling Finn on He calls out to Ravenna to heal him but she lets him die.

This actually makes Ravenna leave her castle to kill Snow once and for all. She disguises herself as William and feeds Snow a poisoned apple. (The scene is supposed to illustrate Snow's pure heart and her struggle with her destiny but Stewart's acting makes it fall flat. No real anguish or passion, just recited lines.)  Ravenna almost gets Snow's heart but Eric and William stop her. William kisses Snow, but it doesn't save her.

They return to Duke Hammond's castle. Eric has a drunken love profession and kisses Snow's dead body -- a flip on the traditional tale, aren't they clever -- which is what wakes the 'sleeping' princess. Then there's Stewart's attempt at a Braveheart speech, which again falls very flat, and they ride on the castle, ready to end things once and for all. (It's also revolutionary because Snow wears armor!)

'Snow White and the Huntsman' is a pretty average movie that had an above-average budget. There's lots of huge visual effects, but it's just flash and little substance. The only thing that makes this movie at all memorable is Theron's performace. That and Chris Hemsworth wielding an axe.

Rating: 6/10

Links:

Wikipedia page for the movie
IMDB page for the movie
Forbes.com article: 'The Huntsman': Why Ditching Kristen Stewart's Snow White Was A Mistake
The Collider.com interview with the movie's costume designer, Colleen Atwood

Reviews:

Roger Ebert's review
New York Times review
The Collider review
Ms. Magazine - 10 Reasons NOT To See Snow White and The Huntsman
Enjoy the Crawl review
CraveOnline.com review - Remarkably backward, and more than a little offensive... You shouldn't have to watch this.
Thread by Thread Film Costume Analysis and Review

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