Signis

Snow White and the Huntsman

(JPEG)

UK, 2012, Kristen Stewart, Charlize Theron, Chris Hemsworth, Directed by Rupert Sanders.

This tale does begin with ‘Once upon a time...’ then takes us back into a medieval village and castle and the story of Snow White, her evil stepmother, Prince William and a huntsman.

No expense has been spared in this production. Settings are quite spectacular, from the formidable castle and its vast interiors, the wave-crashing sea and the beach expanses, a deadly forest and the beauty of a fairyland. The director, Rupert Sanders, has had a career in commercials so knows how to make the most of a sequence of only a few seconds as well as keep the narrative moving - which serves the momentum of this tale very well. Some scenes, like a lavish crowd coronation scene, last for a very short time and we are on to the next.

This film takes the fairy tale very seriously - not a light satire like Mirror, Mirror, with Julia Roberts. Charlize Theron obviously relishes her role as the hugely egocentric queen who quickly gets rid of her husband, wages war on the people and imprisons the child, Snow White. She has a most elaborate wardrobe as she walks the castle, using her younger brother as her sinister executor of her will and her drive to power and to eternal youth (often sucking the life out of young woman, at other times bathing in milk).

When Snow White escapes from the castle, she sends her brother in pursuit and employs a grieving widower, a woodsman, to hunt down the princess. This leads them into a deadly forest, an encounter with a giant troll, finding a village of women where the men have all gone to fight - and to an encounter with eight dwarves.

Kristen Stewart is Snow White, not unlike her Bella in the Twilight films. Chris Hemsworth is a sturdy huntsman, something like a down-to-earth Thor. And a lot of veteran British actors have been altered by computergraphics to be the dwarves - Bob Hoskins, Ian McShane amongst others. There are lots of battle sequences, especially a climactic confrontation and an attack on the castle where Snow White turns into something like a Joan of Arc. And, of course, the confrontation with the queen.

Costumes are lavish. The musical score aspires to the epic. And, all in all, it works pretty well as an action entertainment.

Peter Malone