Julia Roberts has fun, but 'Mirror Mirror' all on the surface - Chicago Sun-Times

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Julia Roberts has fun, but 'Mirror Mirror' all on the surface - Chicago Sun-Times Mar 30th 2012, 01:20 BY ROGER EBERT FILM CRITIC March 29, 2012 8:20PM The Queen (Julia Roberts, left) moves menacingly toward her rival Snow White (Lily Collins) in "Mirror Mirror." storyidforme: 28140573 tmspicid: 10172573 fileheaderid: 4686289 'Mirror Mirror' ★★½ The Queen Julia Roberts Snow White Lily Collins Prince Alcott Armie Hammer Brighton Nathan Lane King Sean Bean Relativity Media presents a film directed by Tarsem Singh. Written by Marc Klein and Jason Keller, based on stories by the Brothers Grimm. Running time: 106 minutes. Rated PG (for some fantasy action and mild rude humor). Now at local theaters. Updated: March 29, 2012 9:02PM 'Mirror Mirror" is a sumptuous fantasy for the eyes and a pinball game for the mind, as story elements collide and roll around bumping into one another. This is not a faithful retelling of the Snow White tale by the Brothers Grimm or even the Walt Disney version, but neither is it a satire, nor much of a story in its own right. But it's great to look at. If there's a major difference from the earlier versions, it's the beefed-up roles for the seven dwarves, who here seem to be a merry band in search of Robin Hood. Nor do I recall earlier battles with a giant winged griffin. The look of "Mirror Mirror" owes everything to director Tarsem Singh, an India-born former TV commercial maker, famous for two of the best-looking movies I've ever seen, "The Cell" (2000) and "The Fall" (2006). He's in love with spectacular landscapes and architecture. In all of his films (including last year's underwhelming "Immortals"), the costumes of the late Japanese designer Eiko Ishioka dominate every scene they're in and every character they're worn by. Julia Roberts seems particularly well-suited to wear them, and when first seen is in a magnificent orange gown and seated on a seashell throne that acts as a frame and a continuation of the costume. Roberts plays the queen in a kingdom introduced by her opening narration, which uses animated doll figures to fill us in on her early life. She was married to a king (Sean Bean) who promptly set off into the forest and was not seen again. That left her as the autocratic ruler of a kingdom with painfully high taxes, and the stepmother of Snow White (Lily Collins), who she holds captive in the castle until she's 18. There is a financial crisis. Brighton (Nathan Lane), the queen's aide and accountant, tells her she's broke. That comes at an inconvenient time, because Prince Alcott (Armie Hammer) has wandered into the kingdom, and the Queen knows if she marries him, he can solve her finances. Problem is, she can't even afford the royal ball at which she plans for them to fall in love. The Prince has already met Snow White, who the Queen has banished to the forest; they were both wandering in the woods when they encountered the seven dwarves, jolly bandits with good hearts. It is Snow White and not the Prince in this version who bestows a life-changing kiss. It's almost uncanny in some scenes here, how Lily Collins (daughter of pop star Phil Collins) looks like Audrey Hepburn. She's all sweet, all innocent, but Julia Roberts steals the show with her imperious Queen. She consults her own image in a mirror, located as only Tarsem Singh would place it, in a weird structure in the middle of a lake. She never asks who is the fairest of them all, and thus never has to hear the inevitable answer, but the Queen's vanity and fear of aging give Roberts some plum scenes. Consider the one where she's having a spa-style beauty makeover before the ball. Her lips become bee-stung with the help of real bees, she gets a manicure from disgusting wormy creatures, and her skin is refreshed with a preparation made up from parrot droppings. Yes, parrot droppings, and we see the parrots dropping them. All of this looks great, but the dialogue is rather flat, the movie's sort of boring, and there's not much energy in the two places it should really be felt: Between the Queen and Snow White, and between Snow and the Prince. "Mirror Mirror" tells a listless tale that moves at a stately pace through settings that could have supported fireworks. Indeed, the characters who seem to care the most about one another are the dwarves. This entry passed through the Full-Text RSS service — if this is your content and you're reading it on someone else's site, please read the FAQ at fivefilters.org/content-only/faq.php#publishers. Five Filters recommends: Donate to Wikileaks.

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