MIRROR MIRROR
RYAN: This movie is like a cake – gorgeously decorated, fluffy, sweet and delicious!
CAROLINE: Ok now you’re just making me hungry. It actually looks sort of funny to me based on the commercials. Your sweet tooth aside, how was the movie?
RYAN: It’s fabulous. The opening sequence is animated and it’s the coolest animation since The Tale of the Three Brothers in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1.
CAROLINE: That was phenomenal.
RYAN: I love a fairy tale and was looking forward to this one.
CAROLINE: It’s the first of two Snow Whites coming out this year; the other one opens in June with Charlize Theron and Kristen Stewart.
RYAN: Yeah and that looks more like a war movie. This one is classic fairy tale. There’s magic, enchantment, laughter, music, all of it, everything…
CAROLINE: It’s a musical?
RYAN: No, but the score is by Alan Menken.
CAROLINE: Love him! He did The Little Mermaid, Beauty & the Beast…
RYAN: …Aladdin. He’s the best and it’s a beautiful score. Lily Collins does sing one song, over the end credits, in a very random Bollywood number. She has a good voice and I’ll take a musical number anywhere, anytime; but still – Bollywood seemed like a random fit for the film.
CAROLINE: She is Phil Collins’ daughter so I’m not all that surprised she did her own singing… or that she’s in a movie, LBH, let’s be honest.
RYAN: Exactly. But she was good, aside for the eyebrow tragedy. Her brows are so dark and bushy in this movie there were lit’rally moments when I couldn’t concentrate on anything but them.
CAROLINE: [laughs’ That’s so unfortunate. I wonder why they did that. Let’s talk about what’s most important here, though. How’s Julia?
RYAN: She’s great. She’s gorgeous and luminescent and actually quite funny. If anything, I just wish her character had been written even a bit meaner toward Snow White.
CAROLINE: What about her accent?
RYAN: It does come and go but I took it as a creative choice for the role, like the queen is so pretentious, she’s doing her best faux British accent circa Madonna – “the Guy Ritchie years.”
CAROLINE: Oh that’s good, if that’s the case.
RYAN: I was worried this movie was gonna be all slapsticky and goofy cos the trailer looked that way but you’re actually so submerged into this whimsical world, that the humor works in the context of the film and I never found it too silly or off-putting.
CAROLINE: That’s a relief. Is it really just for little kids?
RYAN: No I think there’s enough here to appeal to all ages. So the parents taking kids will dig it too, though it’s certainly more for the girls and girls-at-heart, than the boy audience.
CAROLINE: It’s all princessy?
RYAN: Not too much. And the dwarfs are all so funny and that young boys will find them cool.
CAROLINE: It looks like the colors and costume design are impressive.
RYAN: OMG beyond! It’s the same costume designer as Bram Stoker’s Dracula, The Fall, The Cell, etc…
CAROLINE: Oh I remember the costumes in The Fall. They were exquisite.
RYAN: They’re totally breathtaking here again and it actually saddens me because I was just looking the designer up and she died in January.
CAROLINE: Oh that is so sad!
RYAN: I’m, like, sad and disappointed because her talent is so great, it’s just a huge, big loss.
CAROLINE: How was Armie Hammer as the prince?
RYAN: He certainly brings the man-candy. He is charming, pun intended. And Nathan Lane’s terrific too. He brings the same ole Nathan Lane but it really doesn’t get old.
CAROLINE: My interest is more than piqued.
RYAN: It’s a very sweet, romantic, empowering twist on the classic story. All the elements are there but the plot unfolds in a new way. It’s the best kind of pure escapism. If you’re in the mood to get swept up into a fairy tale, you’re gonna love this.
— RATING —
