Mirror, Mirror

MIRROR MIRROR poster Julia Roberts

Rating: 3.25 of 5 ★★★¼☆ 

When the two Snow White movies were coming out last year, I was curious about both. Mostly I thought Snow White and the Huntsman would be the more enjoyable (though I wasn’t sure about Kristen Stewart) and I thought Mirror, Mirror would be more laughable because I don’t have a lot of esteem for Tarsem Signh.

Color me surprised, then, when Kristen Stewart was actually able to decimate Snow White and Mirror, Mirror was actually a good balance of campy playfulness without being cheesy.

Julia Roberts, of course, was fantastic as this ridiculous, vain queen. I could see in the trailer that she navigated the dangerous waters of a silly character without making her absurd. It’s actually a really difficult performance, to say ridiculous things without it descending into a really bad b-movie caricature. But she handles it brilliantly. She’s mean and playful and silly while being just serious enough.

Lily Collins was decent as the princess; a little too soft spoken and innocent in the beginning to her performance felt like she was trying a little too hard. Also, please, someone, fix her eyebrows. She’s a beautiful girl who ends up looking like a troll. Other than that, she totally looked the part and was sweet.

Armie Hammer was fantastic. I always think I don’t like him him and then he surprises me with how good he actually is. Maybe it’s because I
don’t like his wife because she’s kind of annoyingly brazen (probably something he likes a great deal about her) so I tend to dismiss him. But he completely looks the part and he gives a really good performance that balances that vulnerable, silly but still earnest prince and it comes across as sincere rather than foolish.

The dwarves were a lot of fun. The ending didn’t surprise me at all. The costumes were ludicrous but really well made, because if you’re going to go for that sort of crazy look you have to do it well. Mostly it’s just a fun, playful movie. And there aren’t that many that are really well done these days.

Writing:★★★☆☆ 
Characters:★★★☆☆ 
Performances:★★★½☆ 
Directing:★★★☆☆ 
Production:★★★¾☆ 
Overall:★★★¼☆ 

November 18, 2012 | Review , , | this post contains affiliate links