Snow White and the Huntsman: Review

I've always defended Kristen Stewart.  I wouldn't say I'm her biggest fan, but whenever friends would tear down the young actress, I'd find I was the only one who would show an iota of support.  "She was pretty good in Panic Room"  I would say, or "have you seen Adventureland?"  I would inquire.  I even defender her lethargic work in the Twilight series to a degree, begrudgingly respecting an actress who seemed to recognize that the series was so artistically vapid that she could give the bare minimal effort in a personal act of defiance and still get paid millions for it. 

But I can no longer defend her after seeing Snow White and the Huntsman.  Cast as the titular lead (Snow White, not the Huntsman), Stewart is charged with the unenviable task of carrying an epic, fantasy-action film, acting as the focal point of hope, grace and beauty in a bleak world oppressed under the boot of the embodiment of evil.  Ultimately, the weight proves too much for the shoulders of the unremarkable actress.

"You know what we need?  A gritty reboot of Snow White." – A Studio Executive. 

I can't be sure that these exact words were ever actually spoken, but some iteration of these sentiments had to have been tossed around at some point because what we have in Snow White and the Huntsman is a bleak fantasy tale that takes itself way too seriously.  Trying to be Lord of the Rings via Ridley Scott or Christopher Nolan, Snow White and the Huntsman begins with a prologue that establishes the birth and upbringing of young Snow White (Raffey Cassidy), the death of her mother, the arrival of the beautiful enchantress Ravenna (Charlize Theron), her seduction of Snow White's father and eventual ascension to the throne. Under her reign, all beauty and life within the kingdom withers, from the roses in the courtyard to the beautiful young women of the surrounding villages whose souls are absorbed as fuel for Ravenna's perpetual beauty. 

As explained through an expository flashback we didn't need, we learn that a magic spell cast as a child enabled Ravenna to remain the fairest of them.  Additionally, she cannot be killed by traditional means such as knives to the stomach or the spontaneous popping of blood vessels in the brain brought on by melodramatic fits of screaming.  The downside to this aesthetic superiority is that it comes handicapped with a pesky prophecy – apparently, being as fair as she is, Ravenna can also be undone by a woman equally as fair because that makes sense in the world of fairy tale logic.  Seeing as the prophecy didn't mention anything about this woman also being strong-willed, intelligent or charismatic, it turns out that our lovely Snow White (Kristen Stewart) fits the bill.  On the dawn of Snow White's 18th birthday, Ravenna sends her brother, Finn (Sam Spruell), to the highest prison in the north tower to end the long-imprisoned girl's life because when there's only one person in history who is capable of killing you, it only makes sense that you keep them locked up for 10 years instead of killing them immediately.

Anyway, Snow White eventually escapes the castle and flees into the fantastically trippy and frightening Dark Forest.  The Dark Forest, as you could probably guess from its name, is neither a place people tend to visit regularly nor one where visitors regularly survive, but Snow White is special, as we're incessantly told, and therefore, Ravenna hires The Huntsman (Chris Hemsworth), who's known for having been one of the few to have survived the forest (but not known well enough, apparently, to actually be named), to find her. 

Thus, we're launched into the dark fantasy world of Snow White and the Huntsmen, a visually stunning world where fairy tale tropes of all kinds have been amalgamated together to create both breathtaking beauty and nightmarish scares.  Directed by first timer Rupert Sanders, the film shows off the absolute best visual flair of a man with a long history in commercial directing while also reeking of its hollow storytelling.  At certain moments, you'll be in awe over the subtle spookiness of the Dark Forrest, the seamless integration of live action and CGI and the imagination behind the entity within the magic mirror.  At other moments, the film will shoot itself in the foot with long stretches of sheer boredom and narrative missteps.  As the film goes along, it weaves in and out of beautiful imagery but falls short as a story that's interesting enough to justify all the hard work of the visual artists.  It wants to be more ambitious than it actually is, but the scope and stakes are never felt as much as they're lazily relayed.

The most egregious perpetrator of this crime is the eponymous Snow White as played by Kristen Stewart.  Much is made of the legacy of Snow White being the most physically beautiful, the most attitudinally gracious and the most emotionally gravitational woman in the land and what we're given instead is an actress given barely 100 words to speak in the entire film – this is including a flat inspirational call to battle speech during Act III – and who appears as though she's on the verge of either falling asleep or crying throughout the entire runtime.  The world of Snow White and the Huntsman is one devoid of joy and Snow White is supposed to act as a symbol of hope – the red rose in the deep of winter – but there's no reason to believe she's capable of living up to such high expectations and certainly no proof, other than narrative obligation, that she is a fulfillment of Ravenna's prophecy. 

Stewart's performance is particularly atrocious because of how it ends up detracting from the adequate performances around her.  No one will construct monuments to the work of her co-star, Chris Hemsworth, but at least he's trying, taking things seriously whether it's a battle scene or something more intimate and pulling off a believable accent through it all as well.  Theron stands as Stewart's opposite in every possible way, swinging the pendulum in the other direction by hamming it up at every chance she gets.  It's humorous at times, but it seems intentionally so, because Theron is smart enough to realize this isn't Shakespeare and in the end, she turns out to be the only real levity in a film that's surprisingly joyless.  But in the end, both her and Hemsworth are solitary bright spots in an otherwise dark sky, but there’s  no coherence in this because there's no chemistry or connection between them and the actress who's supposed to be the sun in their universe.