By Monique Carrasco / Staff Writer

Captivating (Relativity)
By Monique Carrasco / Staff Writer
The timeless tale of “Snow White and the Seven Dwarves” has returned to the big screen in the new movie “Mirror Mirror,” and the film has certainly succeeded in bringing the story to life with both a brilliant cast, and a modern twist.
The film features Julia Roberts as the evil queen, Nathan Lane as her eccentric servant, and up and coming actress Lily Collins as Snow White.
The actors worked exceptionally well at bringing something fresh and new to each proverbial character, as well as making sure each persona was very clear and complete.
If there is anything to be said about the performances in this film, it should most certainly be about Collins, for perhaps the best part of this adaptation of “Snow White,” was its portrayal of Snow White herself.
As many know, her story was originally thought up by the Brothers Grimm, and had a dark, somewhat peculiar, feel to it.
But the iconic soft-spoken, good-natured character we all know today was, of course, made famous by Walt Disney.
This movie seemed to knit together its own ideas of Snow White with the age-old concepts of both Disney and the Brothers Grimm in order to create a very interesting interpretation of a classic character.
Collins expressed a great understanding of her character’s growth over the course of the movie in an interview with The Vancouver Sun.
“She becomes a fighter physically and emotionally, and goes from this young, wide-eyed, innocent princess that everyone grew up knowing to a young woman who finds within herself the strength to fight for what she believes in,” Collins said in the interview.
In the original Disney film, the core concepts are love, friendship, and goodness over evil, but, while this movie certainly touches on those, it focuses more on bravery, empowerment and finding yourself.
Even with the love potions, the charming Prince, and the magic beast, this film proved to be more of a coming-of-age story than a simple children’s fairy tale.
It began with the narration of The Queen, as she introduced the story as her own.
She tells the audience of her “love story” with Snow White’s father, The King, and of her desire to remain both ruler of her kingdom, and the fairest woman in the world.
The only thing standing in her way is the rightful heir to the throne-the beautiful Snow White.
With that in mind, The Queen declared, “Snow must do what snow does best…snow must fall.” This statement painted a clear picture of good and evil and foreshadowed the events that lay ahead.
To further emphasize the foreshadowing, the statement was made once more, later in the film, just before The Queen ordered her servant to kill Snow White in the forest.
But of course, this did not occur, instead, Snow White went on to meet the seven dwarves (a bit rougher than Disney’s), who enabled her yearn for adventure and taught her to be strong and fight her own battles, both literally and figuratively.
With her newfound courage, Snow went on to sword fight a prince, fall in love with him, save his life twice, and take her kingdom back from The Queen.
An ironic tone was evident, for in a strange turn of events the princess saved the prince through the magic of true love’s kiss,
Snow was not the one to fall, but rather the Queen. Though she introduced the story as her own, it turned out to be Snow White’s all along.
“Mirror Mirror” was just the right balance of whimsicality and realism, and though it may have wandered in parts from the classic tale of Snow White, one thing remained the same. The story’s encouragement for all to believe in kindness, love, and most importantly, yourself.