Mirror Mirror (2012)
Directed by Tarsem Singh
After she spends all her money, an evil enchantress queen schemes to marry a handsome, wealthy prince. There's just one problem - he's in love with a beautiful princess, Snow White. Now, joined by seven rebellious dwarves, Snow White launches an epic battle of good vs. evil...
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What critics say influenced Mirror Mirror
The idea of the Seven Dwarves here owes more than a little to Terry Gilliam’s Time Bandits (1981), but the concept of them passing themselves off as giants with the aid of accordion stilts is an amusing notion—and one that plays even better than it sounds.
And as a movie, eye candy specialist Tarsem Singh Dhandwar borrows from “Zorro,” “Time Bandits” and his own “The Cell” and “The Fall.”
Forget Sneezy and Dopey - think Terry Gilliam's Time Bandits .
Mirror Mirror is essentially a live-action Snow White and the Seven Dwarves crossed with Time Bandits .
With its loose-jointed colloquialisms and gold-tipped touches of romance, the picture is somewhat reminiscent of The Princess Bride , though not nearly as woolly.
The finished product is a bizarro hybrid of The Princess Bride, Monty Python and “Mother Goose’s Rock and Rhyme,” but nowhere near as interesting as that description – or indeed any other – is likely to make it sound.
This is a fairy tale comedy that should play the material straighter, like the narrow genre's masterpiece, The Princess Bride.
Parents who loved The Princess Bride will appreciate the similarly cheeky edge.
Marc Klein and Jason Keller’s wit-deprived screenplay, from a story by Melisa Wallack, aspires to the same school of fairy-tale irreverence as The Princess Bride, Shrek and Enchanted.
Tarsem Singh Dhandwar (Immortals, The Fall) wins the "Snow White" race, bringing his signature over-the-top production design to bear on a lunkheaded Prince (Armie Hammer), seven dwarfs (Danny Woodburn, Martin Klebba, Jordan Prentice, Mark Povinelli, Joe Gnoffo, Sebastian Saraceno, and Ronald Lee Clark), an eighteen-year-old princess (Lily Collins) with snow-white features and a name to match, and a wicked Queen (Julia Roberts).
Dhandwar, who in the past has billed himself as Tarsem Singh or, when he's apparently channeling Prince or Madonna, simply Tarsem, clearly has an eye for unusual visuals, as evidenced by his previous works The Cell, The Fall and Immortals.
And as a movie, eye candy specialist Tarsem Singh Dhandwar borrows from “Zorro,” “Time Bandits” and his own “The Cell” and “The Fall.”
From Tarsem’s early days in music videos and commercials through his debut feature ( The Cell ), his years-in-the-making labor of love The Fall , and his 2011 epic Immortals , he’s exhibited two constant themes: a love of vividly colorful rococo imagery, and a love of myths and fantasy, which are conducive to his brand of richly appointed, spectacle-driven melodrama.
If it isn’t anywhere near in the same league as Tarsem’s The Fall (2006), well, that’s not very surprising.
Directed by Tarsem Singh, who made the visually super-amped “The Cell” and “The Fall,” this is a candy-colored retelling of the story with the Queen as narrator, and fresh spins on several of the elements of the story.
Look at Susan Sarandon’s take on this character in “Enchanted” to see how it’s supposed to be done.
The Prince is a somewhat comic figure, though not as lacking in dignity and self-awareness as, say, Prince Edward in Enchanted (checking his teeth in his reflective sword, attempting to give battle to a city bus, etc.).
If 2007's "Enchanted" succeeded in skewering classic fairy tales, specifically "Snow White," while retaining a winning earnestness at its core, "Mirror Mirror" never musters the comic energy or emotional sincerity needed to refresh its well-worn story.
Marc Klein and Jason Keller’s wit-deprived screenplay, from a story by Melisa Wallack, aspires to the same school of fairy-tale irreverence as The Princess Bride, Shrek and Enchanted.
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Dhandwar, who in the past has billed himself as Tarsem Singh or, when he's apparently channeling Prince or Madonna, simply Tarsem, clearly has an eye for unusual visuals, as evidenced by his previous works The Cell, The Fall and Immortals.
And as a movie, eye candy specialist Tarsem Singh Dhandwar borrows from “Zorro,” “Time Bandits” and his own “The Cell” and “The Fall.”
Directed by Tarsem Singh, who made the visually super-amped “The Cell” and “The Fall,” this is a candy-colored retelling of the story with the Queen as narrator, and fresh spins on several of the elements of the story.
Mirror Mirror, by contrast, is the irreverent, caustic but sentimental version, complete with wisecracking dwarves, a gold-digging evil queen (Julia Roberts) and a digital-effects wonderland crafted by director Tarsem Singh, who previously showed his CGI bona fides with the likes of The Cell and The Fall.
Directed by the visually strong Tarsem Singh (of Immortals and The Cell fame), this revisionist fairy tale has Snow White (Lily Collins) the imprisoned step-daughter of the evil queen (Julia Roberts) whose free spending ways has her hatch a scheme to marry visiting price (Armie Hammer) and take his riches.
Her attire certainly complements the riotous vistas envisioned by Tarsem Singh Dhandwar, the Indian-born director of Mirror Mirror, and before that of The Cell, The Fall and Immortals, for all of which Ishioka devised beguiling costumes.
(A better approach might have been to make up an original fairy tale that cheerfully evoked and kidded the classics--the take employed by the likes of "Fractured Fairy Tales" and the lovely-but-underrated "Ella Enchanted.")