SPOILERS: This is not nearly as bad as it sounds. When you figure that Disney's Snow White is one of the top 50 U.S. films of all time (and the best thing Disney has ever done), you can understand why Hallmark and writer/director Caroline Thompson (who did such a good job on Black Beauty and Edward Scissorhands) would not want to do that version of the fairy tale. And unlike Alice in Wonderland, Snow White is not sacred material; not only has it changed drastically over the past 180+ years, but versions of the basic storyline are present in the folklore of many different countries and languages. The Hallmark version is much closer to the original (and darker) Brothers Grimm story. So the best way to watch this is to put aside any preconceived notions and view it with an open mind.
One thing it has going for it is that the production designer did the usual Hallmark fairy tale magic with the look of the thing. Very nice.
Casting was a little weak. Kristan Kreuk's performance as the title character is feeble; the director should have been able to get a whole lot more from her, but Miranda Richardson as the Evil Queen was wonderful. Fortunately the story is centered around the Queen, and Richardson is able carry the whole film. I don't know if this was by design or was done in post, they may have trimmed a lot of Kreuk's stuff when they realized it was so awful. But at least they worked hard with the lighting and the digital color correction to lighten Kreuk's complexion-she is still not physically believable as Snow White (not even close to lips as red as blood and skin white as the snow) but the disparity is not as bad as expected. And Kruck is such a sterile non-sensuous beauty that she fits the antiseptic way in which the director apparently wanted to under-portray the character.
Vincent Schiavelli who stole the show in "Ghost" also steals all the seven dwarf scenes.
Vera Farmiga does a great job as Snow White's mother, especially when she plays the Queen impersonating the mother. In fact, the best scene of the film is when she is trying to convince Snow White to eat the apple-some really great shot framing and editing. Interestingly, in the original story it was the mother (not a step-mother) who was trying to kill Snow White,
The ending is a bit anti-climatic as it almost instantly goes from everything being totally bleak to everything being right with the kingdom. And this happens not because of any action from the heroes or in any sort of suspenseful way, the Queen just undoes herself by reaching too far. While this supports the 'its what's inside each of us that's important' theme, it cheats the viewer out of an interestingly evolving resolution.
If you ignore Kreuk (who became a decent actress-or at least much better than anyone could have guessed from this performance) and prepare yourself for a rather 'nothing' ending, you should enjoy this tale.
One thing it has going for it is that the production designer did the usual Hallmark fairy tale magic with the look of the thing. Very nice.
Casting was a little weak. Kristan Kreuk's performance as the title character is feeble; the director should have been able to get a whole lot more from her, but Miranda Richardson as the Evil Queen was wonderful. Fortunately the story is centered around the Queen, and Richardson is able carry the whole film. I don't know if this was by design or was done in post, they may have trimmed a lot of Kreuk's stuff when they realized it was so awful. But at least they worked hard with the lighting and the digital color correction to lighten Kreuk's complexion-she is still not physically believable as Snow White (not even close to lips as red as blood and skin white as the snow) but the disparity is not as bad as expected. And Kruck is such a sterile non-sensuous beauty that she fits the antiseptic way in which the director apparently wanted to under-portray the character.
Vincent Schiavelli who stole the show in "Ghost" also steals all the seven dwarf scenes.
Vera Farmiga does a great job as Snow White's mother, especially when she plays the Queen impersonating the mother. In fact, the best scene of the film is when she is trying to convince Snow White to eat the apple-some really great shot framing and editing. Interestingly, in the original story it was the mother (not a step-mother) who was trying to kill Snow White,
The ending is a bit anti-climatic as it almost instantly goes from everything being totally bleak to everything being right with the kingdom. And this happens not because of any action from the heroes or in any sort of suspenseful way, the Queen just undoes herself by reaching too far. While this supports the 'its what's inside each of us that's important' theme, it cheats the viewer out of an interestingly evolving resolution.
If you ignore Kreuk (who became a decent actress-or at least much better than anyone could have guessed from this performance) and prepare yourself for a rather 'nothing' ending, you should enjoy this tale.