Mirror Mirror (2012)

Julia Roberts looks like she is having some fun here in this re-versioning of the timeless "Snow White" story. She is the rather sarcastic, wicked, queen who has managed to somehow get shot of the king (Sean Bean - so no bad thing) and rules the frosty kingdom with the aid of her sidekick "Brighton" (Nathan Lane) whilst the princess (Lily Collins) grows to womanhood. Whilst out walking in the woods one day, the young girl comes across the half dressed prince "Alcott" (Armie Hammer) and his pal "Napoleon" (Jordan Prentice). Taken to the palace the queen takes a bit of a shine to the prince but he takes a shine to the princess and, well pretty soon it falls to "Brighton" to dispose of the queen's rival. The rest of this follows, loosely, the established fable as she encounters the seven horizontally challenged men (their names have been changed) and who agree to help her to regain her kingdom and her man. Lane and Roberts work quite well together - in an almost pantomime fashion, but the rest of it is pretty mundane. Neither Collins nor Hammer set the story alight, the dwarves have a rather aggressive, slapstick, nature to their characters and though an attempt to keep it light-hearted has gone into the script, it's all just a little too wordy and frankly rather plodding. The effects are good, but as the queen never tires of telling us - snow ought to do what it does best - fall! It does that ok.