There's been a few dark retellings of the old Snow White. One featured a hag version of Sigourney Weaver that freaks me out even though I don't remember ever seeing the movie. But this version blew me away, because it didn't try to turn the Disney cartoon into Nightmare on Elm Street. Instead, I feel like they took a more mature approach to the characters, by examining real human emotion, portrayed by (a few) amazing actors.
The story begins with a quaint royal family and their happy kingdom. We are shown a bright eyed and cheerful little girl called Snow White, and told that she is the embodiment of innocence. I believe it of that little girl, she was adorable. Then enter Charlize Theron to beguile the king out of his kingdom with beauty and dark magic. Very early in our introduction to Charlize Theron's character, the evil queen, we see that she is off her rocker. To secure her position, the new queen throws Snow White in a tower, where that adorable young girl turns into Kristen Stewart.
At that point, I stopped caring about Snow White. Lucky for me, there were plenty of other neat characters to keep me engaged.
As her power wanes, the evil queen gets it in her head that by eating Snow White's heart, she will forever be young and beautiful. But her plan is foiled when Miss White escapes her tower prison and flees into the dark forest, where monsters and evil hallucinogenic spores await. Only one man is desperate and drunk enough to brave the dark forest in order to recapture Snow White for the evil queen, but he has plans of his own...
The depth that Chris Hemsworth and Charlize Theron brought to their characters, and to the movie, took my breath away. I had a hard time thinking to myself that the 'evil' queen was really all that evil, and I wonder now if perhaps they shouldn't have called her the Misguided Queen. Or the Scared and Lonely Queen. Or lets have out with it and call her the Crazoid Witch Queen Who We Still Feel Sorry for Because She's Had a Rough Life and You Can't Blame Her for That. I'm assuming that title doesn't fit in the credits.
I've heard a few people were disenfranchised by a few of Charlize Theron's facial expressions, calling them goofy and over the top. I heard that before I saw the movie, and I went in prepared for some goofy scowls, but honestly I didn't see it. Her facial expressions were intense, I admit, but I feel like she did a good job portraying a desperate woman who used anger to cover up for her fear. I admit, Miss Theron's performance brought me to tears. She balanced out her character with good and evil, as well as strengths and weaknesses. Good Job, I say! (Because she can hear me...)
And Chris Hemsworth, too, got me choked up a bit. He has a way of playing subtle emotion that is unequaled in other actors. As Thor and the Huntsman, he played these tough men who were hiding weakness. The weakness didn't shine through too much, just enough to realize the depth of the character.
Both of these great actors (as well as the wonderful dwarves) fed life and emotion into the movie. They also fed life and emotion into another character, that we will call Kristen Stewart. Honestly, I think that's the only character she can play, and it's not a very good one.
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