Snow White (2000)
Reviewer: Charity Bishop
Hallmark may not have a monopoly on dark fairy tales but they certainly film them in style. This may not be the sugar-coated fantasy flick you remember hearing as a child or watching in the old Disney cartoon. This fairy tale is told the way Grimm would tell it... with dark, sinister elements and fascinating plot twists. At the edge of the wood, in a small cottage garnished with red roses, a young woman (Vera Farmiga) awaits her husband's return. Plucking one of the roses too carelessly, a drop of her blood falls on the apple blossoms beneath the window and she envisions a child with lips as red as blood and hair as dark as ebony. The day comes when she bears this child, to the delight of her doting peasant husband. They call the child "Snow White." But something has gone wrong and Josephine falls under the everlasting spell of death.
Her husband John (Tom Irwin), distraught but knowing he must protect his
daughter, buries his wife and takes the baby away with him. Getting lost in the
snow, he stumbles onto the frozen waters of the lake and sheds a tear, certain
they will both perish. His tears release a jinn (or genie) from its encasement
of ice and he is granted three wishes.... milk for the child, a kingdom to raise
her in, and a queen to dote on them both. The genie returns to the home of his
half-mortal and ugly sister Elspeth (Miranda Richardson). His desire is to give
her a chance at happiness, and he bestows on her the gift of beauty, little
knowing that her heart is black. He sends her to become the queen but John's
love is still bound to his dead wife. Only with the power of her magic mirror,
which casts a shard of glass into his eye and obscures his vision, can she gain
his favor. Falling beneath her spell, his beautiful daughter falls into the
background of his new obsession.
Sixteen years pass in which the child grows into a beautiful young woman
(Kristen Kreuk) sadly overlooked by her father. But change is swift in coming
and from foreign shores comes Prince Alfred (Tyron Leitso), hoping to seek Snow
White's hand in marriage. The marriage between Elspeth and John has grown cold
and one day the shard of glass falls from his eye and in turn from his heart.
Does Elspeth care? No. She has set her cap at another. But her spell goes array,
and instead of piercing her new conquest, adoration instead falls into the eye
of the Huntsman. From here, you may believe you already know the rest of the
story... but this is not your grandmother's fairy tale. Magic mirrors and
scarves, poisoned apples and the seven dwarves do lie ahead... but in a
way you never imagined. The dwarves are cunningly named after the days of the
week, and one of them has been imprisoned as a lawn ornament for Elspeth's
pleasure. Prince Alfred, fleeing from the interest of the Queen, will face a
torment of his own. And what happens to a King who stumbles into the Queen's
room of magic mirrors? It's a script reeking with clever ideas, memorable
dialogue, and visual delights.
This production is incredible. Artisan has gone even beyond its success with
The 10th Kingdom in masterful special effects to put any Hollywood
production to shame. The mirrors have the ability to transform, entrap, and
distort human characters, to trap the King within glass or transform Elspeth
into the likeness of John's dead wife. Then there is the snow globe into which
is placed a living creature, and Snow White's coffin of ice. Makeup takes the
beauty of Miranda Richardson and transforms her into a hideous old crone. The
production value of this film is amazing. The costuming is gorgeous, the sets in
keeping with a fairy-tale like Medieval existence, and the cinematography is
breathtaking, right from the opening shot to the ending panorama. The
writer/director knew what she was doing. But even gorgeously filmed as it is,
you aren't going to want to plunk your little sister down in front of this one.
The script is very dark and contains sinister plot twists, frightening
circumstances, hideous creatures, and some psychological elements.
I consistently wavered between liking it and being a little wary of it, even
with its message of not looking for outer beauty, but seeking the true
nature of the heart. There
is some implied violence, non-sensual kissing (Snow White's reflection
bounds from the mirror and mockingly kisses her stepmother in one scene) and
mild dialogue. Elspeth also flirts several times with Prince Alfred.
Viewers may not find the idea of Elspeth consuming what she believes to be
Snow White's heart overly appealing. She also removes a shard of glass from
her husband's heart while he sleeps. A fairy tale perhaps... but a dark one.
