Directed by Rupert Sanders
(PG-13)
The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
The second take on Snow White this year “fails to realize the full potential of its ambitiously dark vision,” said Lou Lumenick in the New York Post. In the title role, Twilight’s “faintly bruised-looking” Kristen Stewart is “nobody’s idea of the ‘fairest in the land,’” nor is she a match as an actor for her onscreen nemesis. “By far” the best thing about this film is Charlize Theron’s turn as the evil Queen Ravenna, said Owen Gleiberman in Entertainment Weekly. She’s a “fascist of feminism,” embittered that beauty is her power. Theron’s performance “has the blood of operatic anger coursing through it” as Ravenna dispatches a huntsman to fetch Snow White, whose heart will grant her immortality. “Incongruously,” Stewart’s “sulky” Snow White leads a peasant revolt against her rival instead of sharing the screen with her for more than a couple scenes, said Dana Stevens in Slate.com. Given the material, the budget, and the “ravishing production design,” this summer extravaganza shouldn’t have turned into “a dull piece of junk.” Somehow, it managed to.
-
Fannie Flagg’s 6 favorite books that sparked her imaginationFeature The author recommends works by Johanna Spyri, John Steinbeck, and more
-
Google: A monopoly past its prime?Feature Google’s antitrust case ends with a slap on the wrist as courts struggle to keep up with the tech industry’s rapid changes
-
Patrick Hemingway: The Hemingway son who tended to his father’s legacyFeature He was comfortable in the shadow of his famous father, Ernest Hemingway
