Everyone I know has a special relationship with fairy tales. Those
were the first stories we heard and the first books we read. Our
childhood days were spent flipping through the pages of those classic
tales by Brothers Grimm and gazing dreamily at the vivid illustrations
till we knew the characters by heart.

Each story was different but
similar in a way. There was always a “happily ever after” ending where
the evil was defeated and the virtuous prevailed. The prince always came
to the rescue of the hapless princess, bestowed with all the beauty and
virtue under the sun. By now you can tell how much I loved those
fables.

If you happen to be like me you should think twice before
heading off to a cinema to watch “Mirror Mirror”, which is supposed to
be a light-hearted entertaining version of Grimm's “Snow White and the
Seven Dwarfs”.

I cannot figure out why the movie marketeers
claimed that “The Snow White legend comes Alive”, in its latest
adaptation. If anything, it is a sure attempt to strangle the legend to
death.

There are no glass coffins and the poisoned apple does not make an appearance until the end of the movie.

The
dwarfs do not dig for gold either but are bandits (with compressible
stilts on their feet) who rob the rich. Their names have also been
changed to Napoleon, Half Pint, Grub, Grimm, Wolf, Butcher and Chuckles,
which might make you Grumpy.

The lovely Snow White (Lily
Collins) with her snow-white skin, blood-red lips and ebony-black hair
has also lost her naiveté. Not only does she cook and clean but this new
sword-wielding princess also punches her Prince (Armie Hammer) in the
face and breaks his nose!

Mirror Mirror ends up being a mixed bag.
The screenplay by Marc Klein and Jason Keller rewrites the fairy tale
convention that finds every damsel helplessly imperiled until a prince
rescues her from danger. The Prince himself gets saved by a kiss from
the princess, who is far from defenceless.

Like Tim Burton's Alice
in Wonderland, Mirror Mirror tampers with the original which could be
detrimental as the narrative fails to enchant with its political
correctness.

A few scenes like the one in which the Prince turns
into a whimpering puppy after ingesting "Puppy Love Potion" or the one
in which the Queen's manservant and official bootlicker, Brighton
(Nathan Lane) turns into a "Cockroach" were included purely for
ridiculous comic relief. However, such scenes tend to lower the quality
of the film.

The script writers also went over the top in their
effort to sound funny, resulting in some excruciatingly unfunny lines
that made it very hard to sit till the end of the movie.

However,
the archetypal power of the stepmother-daughter, age-beauty conflict is
present throughout the movie. Julia Roberts outshines everyone as the
jealous queen while the newcomer Lily Collins, daughter of the singer
Phil Collins, is a convincing foil for the jealous Queen, personifying
intelligence, innate goodness and beauty.

Director Tarsem Singh
does not disappoint visually. One scene after another is a sensation of
colour and costumes. However, Singh's singular knack of impressing the
audience with a grand spectacle sometimes overwhelms the characters and
stops the story cold. I am referring to the scene where he indulges in
the puppets sequence which seemed absolutely unnecessary.

Nevertheless,
if vivid production design and some laughs are what you desire you will
not be disappointed. The script still has heart and means to entertain
children with its creativity. Amidst the twists in the tale remains the
earnest tale of a girl who falls in love with her prince.

Afsana Tazreen is with The Daily Star.