The abovementioned was the last movie self saw before leaving for Scotland. In fact, she saw it only a few hours before the husband took her to the airport to catch her British Airways flight to London.
Self liked it so much, she wanted to blog about it immediately. But it turned out to be quite a hectic week. At any rate, having finally settled down in Midlothian, Scotland, and having grown more accustomed to a significant increase in her daily intake of wine, she is at last ready to blog about the movie. Hallelujah!
Let’s see, what are the things self liked so much about it?
- Chris Hemsworth — Methinks the hunk can act! He might even be a better actor than Channing!
- Kristen Stewart — Several weeks (maybe even months) ago, self discovered that Niece G hates K-Stew. Unaccountably, self loves her. She loved her in “Panic Room” and in “Into the Wild.” She was a good choice to play Bella in the Twilight movies. Here, K-Stew has a vomiting scene. Unquestionably, no other actress can give herself over so completeley to the portrayal of a woman who is about to die in a particularly nasty way. K-Stew’s face actually goes all red, and she starts toppling this way and that on the snow. Tell self there isn’t another actress in the entire world who can vomit so convincingly. Self is serious.
- Charlize Theron and her various get-ups. In particular, the yellow-green, embroidered-all-over gown, and the one with black feathers. But it’s also Charlize’s acting: you really, really feel her pain, her wanting to be “the most beautiful” because that is the source of her power. Admittedly, her character goes to very extreme lengths. There’s a shot of Charlize’s naked back that self found shockingly repellent.
- The voice-over. Self really needed that voice-over, especially in the first battle scene. It elicited from self an unexpected level of stomach-churning tension. The only other movie that’s gotten self to this level of stomach-churning tension was “Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2,” the one with Jessica Biehl, and last year’s “Immortals.”
- The scenery (Scotland?).
- The death scene of the King, Snow White’s father (Nasty as all get-out)
- The background music, especially that ethereally voiced song which played during Snow White’s dash across the Scottish moors. There was also the appearance of a startlingly huge white stag (which immediately called to mind Miyazaki’s powerful “Princess Mononoke”: self recalled seeing the Miyazaki movie at least four times)
- The battle scenes were pretty rousing, as well.
Now, in contrast to “Mirror, Mirror,” which asked the audience to swallow the fact that Lilly Collins aka Snow White could blend into the countryside while wearing an absolutely sumptuous and voluminous mustard-colored cape, in this movie Snow White has an appropriately haggard look (She’s been locked up in a tower, all these years), and she gets muddy.
When self first saw the previews for this movie, when she saw the trolls or whatever you call those CGI creatures, she just didn’t think it would work. A fantasy Snow White? With Snow White brandishing a sword? Puh-leaze! She’d already seen “Mirror, Mirror,” and liked it immensely. How could there be two Snow White movies in the same year? It was like 2006 all over again, when audiences were treated to two competing movies about magicians: “The Illusionist,” starring Ed Norton and Paul Giamatti, and “The Prestige,” which featured Christian Bale and Michael Caine. Why does Hollywood do this? There was also 2007, when there were two competing bio-pics on Truman Capote. Audiences that year had to choose between not only two very different portrayals of Capote, but also between Catherine Keener’s and Sandra Bullock’s portrayals of Carson McCullers.
But, you know what? Self had exactly the same attitude when she saw the “Star Trek” re-boot, and she emerged from that movie totally believing in J. J. Abrams and Zach Quinto.
So, “Snow White and the Huntsman” now joins “The Exotic Marigold Hotel” as one of her favorite movies of 2012.
Stay tuned.
Kanlaon 