Snow White and the Huntsman – review

In this new version of the fairytale, the second in just a few months, Snow White is like a cross between Aslan and Joan of Arc. It's very different from the jokeyness of Julia Roberts' Mirror Mirror, but with a similar basic problem. Kristen Stewart stars as the heroine; Charlize Theron is the sexy evil queen with headgear modelled on the Disney animation; and Chris Hemsworth plays the huntsman, who is now a full-blown romantic lead, a hunky-stubbly protector with an accent like Russell Crowe's Robin Hood – from Cowdenbeath, Taunton and Dublin. In the manner of Twilight and Hunger Games, the film gives Snow White an unresolved and franchise-friendly romantic choice between the Huntsman and a posh prince resonantly named William (Sam Claflin). Unlike Julia Roberts's feebly evasive version, this movie does at least tackle head-on the Queen's sexual jealousy, and Theron has an interesting steely coldness at first. But she is soon reduced to screeching like a panto villainess in that all-purpose Bardspeak accent. Her stepdaughter leads a revolution against the queen's misrule, and Snow White has the power to cure the people's physical ailments. Like Mirror Mirror, the dwarves are badass forest brigands played by British character actors, but with a Narnia touch. It all becomes very drawn out, and like Mirror Mirror, tries to fix what isn't broken: the poignant clarity of Snow White being betrayed by a non-mother and then having to be a quasi-mother to seven little people. That is evidently far too babyish and needs to be sexed up, or rather teen-abstinenced up. The result is tangled and overblown.