Snow White & The Huntsman

Snow White and the Huntsman is infused with fairytale spirit and
charming characters, but faltering editing toward the end and a lack
of tight focus keeps it from being as powerful as it could be.

-Major Spoilers-

I wasn't sure what to expect when I went to see Snow White and the
Huntsman. Although the twist in the title was intriguing, I have been
suffering from the glut of fairytale movies on the market. The Shrek
series, Hoodwinked, Tangled, etc. It just seemed like one more movie
we didn't need.

I was very pleasantly surprised, however. The script would have done
Walt Disney proud; it steered away from slapstick or crude humor,
instead going to the heart in each character and telling the story
visually, without a burden of expository dialogue. When the Huntsman
helps Snow White across the rocks in the stream, her childhood friend
Will following behind a few paces, you can tell from Will is worrying,
"Has another man taken my place while I was absent? Have I lost her
heart?" Simply from how he trails behind and watches her holding the
huntsman's hand.

As far as story goes, it follows the Disney version of the fairy tale
roughly, but fleshes it out. We see a more 3-dimensional relationship
than in the cartoon, as Snow White knows the "prince" from her youth
and has fond memories of him, as opposed to meeting him once and then
dreaming of him for the rest of her life until she can elope. This
doesn't rob things from the dwarves, as they are three-dimensional
characters as well.

I was overjoyed that the dwarves were great characters, and not
plagued by making jokes at their expense about their physical stature.
I was, however, horrified to learn that real dwarves had not been
cast--instead, normal-sized people were digitally changed. This is
not right, in my opinion, taking work away from shorter people already
at a disadvantage. I was very disappointed in that.

As one of the people watching the movie with me said, "Don't take your
kids to this movie!" It just does not pull punches when it comes to
fear and fighting. The battle scenes in the beginning and end bookend
the story with dark violence, medieval-style fighting of arrows,
swords, including horses getting felled.

This is balanced out with
the more "fairy tale" side, when I saw the fairy land I was amazed.
So beautiful, with animals and fairies and plants, it felt and seemed
so mystical and thriving in life.

But there were deeper and as intriguing elements to the story, not
just the visuals, the action of the characters. Rather than focusing
on the Queen's obsession with being the most beautiful, the film spun
it out into her fear of aging. This is a very powerful fear for a lot
of women, their feeling that beauty is equal to power, and this seemed
to be a parable for that in a way. She could use magic, but it made
her age and she was in terrible situations where she had to choose
between healing or helping her brother, or keeping herself beautiful
and young.

Turns out when she was little, the Queen's mother put a spell on her
that she would live forever, but one who was beautiful in spirit
would undo the curse, and that person was Snow White. The Queen must
have known this as she wed Snow White's widower father; she looked
down at the then-small girl and said she was a "kind child," to be
accepting to a woman taking her mother's place. As she goes to the
wedding procession, you can see the fear and knowledge begin to bloom
on the woman s she know Snow White is her born enemy.

However, this theme was not handled as well as it could have been.
For instance, in the movie supposedly Snow White is the bringer of
life, as well as the Queen is the bringer of death. One of the
dwarves says, "Can't you feel healthier now that she is here?" But,
then why did one of the dwarves remain blind, and one of the other
dwarves die by an arrow? This seemed like a big plot hole, and it's
not like Snow White pulled a Neo and came into "full knowledge" of her
power at the end. They have the camera linger on her for an awkwardly
long time in the last few minutes, as she is crowned queen. It would
have been more interesting and less awkward if she drew on her powers
to make flowering vines climb up the castle walls.

Just a thought.

Another thought: Kristen Stewart is playing Snow White, and there are
two male co-stars, the huntsman and her childhood pal. Uh-oh, I was
thinking it would be a Bella, Jacob and Edward repeat, with the boys fighting for the girl.  I got over that fear, however, as it seemed that since they had been separated for years, Will and Snow would just be good friends with happy memories.  And, the Huntsman only agreed to hunt Snow because he was promised his dead wife back.  His whole character arc revolved around his beloved wife, and I felt "safe" from a romance...it really seemed that he was too old for her and was just her guardian.  He learned from her, and she from him.

What do I mean about this "learning"?  Well, Snow is against killing.  She is prophesied to be the embodiment of life itself, the polar opposite of the life-sucking queen who literally steals peoples' life to make herself younger.  Snow refused to fight, but the Huntsman showed her how to fight.  He taught her to look straight into your enemies' eyes and kill them when you had no choice.  IN tern, Snow taught him that there can be magic in connecting with other living beings.  When a monster knocked the Huntsman unconscious and threatened to kill him, Snow walked to him calmly and stood without fear, using her powers to calm the beast and make him simply walk away.  Snow and the Huntsman learned from each other's philosophies, and when the time came and Snow was in a mortal battle with the queen, she used the exact fighting technique, looked the queen straight in the eyes and killed her. 

I was disappointed at that scene, though, since it could have been so much more impactful of Snow had sat by the dying queen and held her hand, and said something like, "I'm sorry I had to kill you."  Instead, she just says blandly, "You can't have my heart," and walks away.  This was one of the ultimate plot points, good vs. evil, life vs. death, Snow's facing down her revulsion of killing, and...she just walks away?  It's like the moment trails off into a whimpering ending and transition to the next scene.

Another disappointment: the refreshing downplay of the romance plot turned soggy and confusing when she seemed to take both men as her beloved.  She kissed Will (albeit it was the queen disguised as Will) and the Huntsman told her, "You look fetching in that armor," after his kissed her on the lips as she lay "dead."  That made me feel a bit sick, the lip-kiss.  It felt very wrong.  He was older, had a wife...the who9le movie had set up their relationship as platonic, even daughter-father as he'd taken the knife originally saying, "Give that to me before you cut your fingers."  It felt forced and left Will dangling--like the writers had no idea what they wanted to do with romance now.

At the end, too, the Huntsman just looks at her being crowned, with a hopeful-moved-anxious expression.  Is he going to tell her he kissed her?  Does that kiss mean he's "Destined" to be her lover?  What about Will, is he jealous?  Is Snow going to go back to her pacifist ways?  Does she forgive the queen of has she now been corrupted, her sweet spirit turned to bitterness?

Too many unanswered questions and not enough focus on the main themes.  A frustration and disappointment at the end.  2.5/5 stars