PERSONAL SHOPPER Review

I wasn't sure how I felt about Personal Shopper until I got back to my hotel room after watching it and couldn't shake the feeling I was being followed. There is a weird, distinct feeling to the type of movie Personal Shopper is because it doesn't really feel like a movie as we've come to recognize them. Going into the film I had little knowledge as to what it was or what it was about other than the fact it starred Kristen Stewart and came from writer/director Olivier Assayas who also made the highly praised, but befuddling to me Clouds of Sils Maria (also starring Stewart). And so, while I was once again compelled to seek out the film due to the rave reviews it was receiving there was never a great sense of what I was getting myself into. While Personal Shopper doesn't fit squarely into any one genre it instead handles itself with the fluidity and unpredictability of real life where we simply take things as they come no matter how they might otherwise be classified. This is affirming in the sense that nothing is ever predictable about the film and one legitimately never has a clue where the film could go from one moment to the next, but it also makes the focus feel somewhat sloppy in its execution. Were there a clearer intent from the get-go the film's final moments might have been even more shattering than they already are. While there is plenty to feast on here, plenty of feels and subtle details that add up to something substantial as a whole the project is slighter than I would have initially imagined. Slight in that we never dig too deep into any one of those aforementioned facets that Stewart's Maureen is currently dealing with in her life. The slim script, the film runs a quick and quiet 105 minutes, hops from one point of stress for our protagonist to another-flustering both Maureen and the audience until the more supernatural elements of the script become the overwhelming interest in her life then causing everything else to begin to accentuate this point of conflict in terms of opening her eyes to what she's been searching for. What is it exactly that Maureen is searching for? There could naturally be one of a number of interpretations, but while I can appreciate what Personal Shopper does in its challenging of genre and the skill it displays in executing genuine chills it is ultimately more about what it has to say than what it actually says.  

BILLY LYNN'S LONG HALFTIME WALK Review

Not actively terrible, but nowhere near the introspective character study it seemed destined to be Billy Lynn's Long Halftime Walk is an amalgamation of interesting ideas and endearing ambition that went wrong somewhere in the process of its creation. Helmed by auteur Ang Lee (Life of Pi, Brokeback Mountain, Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon) the director has, for one reason or another, decided to make his latest endeavor the first film to ever be shot in 120 frames per second and in 4K 3D which is well over the standard 24 fps most movies are shot in. Add to this the fact Lee easily surpasses the last, failed effort of the higher frame rate variety in Peter Jackson's The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey and it's a curious decision given the truth of the matter is most audiences who choose to experience Billy Lynn will do so in traditional theater presentations given the set-up for such an advanced display requires much more than most theaters are willing to budget for at the moment. And so, while it is admirable for Lee to want to push the boundaries of cinema and, at the very least, experiment so that later generations may build upon such experiments-watching Billy Lynn's Long Halftime Walk in a traditional format because there are no resources to take advantage of how it is meant to be seen across the majority of the country only makes these choices made for the sake of the format that much more glaring. Lee is a master filmmaker and one of the most diverse auteurs in the game at the moment and for that it's impossible not to respect his effort. Over the course of just his last three features the director has taken us from Woodstock in the summer of 1969 to being stranded in the middle of the Pacific Ocean to us now joining him and the surviving members of Bravo Squad at the halftime show of a Dallas football game. This track record combined with the inherently deep and somewhat controversial subject matter made me more than eager to see what conclusions and ideas Lee came to with his film, but rather than any ideas, conclusions, or even narrative cohesion Lee seems to have paid more attention to how best his story could enhance his new format rather than the other way around.

CERTAIN WOMEN Review

Certain Women is my introduction to the much celebrated writer/director Kelly Reichardt who has crafted such films as Wendy and Lucy and Night Moves. Reichardt is said to craft these methodically paced character studies that exist more for their introspective takes on the lives of their characters than anything resembling plot. Minimalist, if you will. Reichardt seemingly adapts many of her films from short stories or collections of short stories. And while I've yet to see any previous films from the filmmaker including her much heralded 2010 feature Meek's Cutoff I don't know that her latest necessarily urges me to go back and see what all the fuss is about. That said, Certain Women is certainly intriguing though the reasons for such interest fall more on the befuddling side of things rather than the promising. It is easy to sell the minimal approach as being more insightful and more telling simply out of the convenience of letting the audience do more of the heavy lifting, but some of the time keeping in line with the minimal approach is simply a substitute for there not being much to say in the first place. It's not hard to appreciate that Reichardt has approached these tales of three individual women in three different stages of their lives that only overlap in the most subtle of ways in an even more subtler fashion, but it is only by virtue of the focus shifting from one story to the next that the film doesn't become a complete and utter bore. And it would were it left in the hands of certain characters and beside the fact this is the point of those certain characters' profiles-documenting the monotony and lack of anything spectacular or interesting occurring in their lives-the film isn't ever able to come up with anything new or profound enough to say about the mundanity of daily life or the foibles that eventually bring us all around to the same level playing field as human beings to be noteworthy in its own right. I can understand and again even appreciate that this is very much a film that speaks to the complex and misunderstood experiences of the female in our male-driven society, but as a product that is intended to convince me of the discrepancies and double standards females deal with on a daily basis that males might not even consider I took away very little by way of enlightenment. There is a fine line between being understated and simply being uninteresting and unfortunately Certain Women skirts that line too often to fall on that minimal, but effective side of things.

CAFÉ SOCIETY Review

Café Society is a movie I wanted to like more and more as the film played on, but as it did so I actually liked it less and less. Beginning with the standard narration from writer/director Woody Allen that drops us into this tale of a young man looking for a place where the grass might be greener things are promising enough. We are introduced to a cadre of family members around our protagonist, Bobby (Jesse Eisenberg), who will inevitably inform where this current inclination to leave his father's failing jewelry business and move across the country to Los Angeles will actually take him. It is 1930's Los Angeles no less and so Bobby is struck by the great seduction of movie stars, movie star parties, and the most beautiful of people to allure him to the city. It is a place considered mythic to the otherwise unrefined Bobby who has been stuck in Manhattan his entire life. The promise of new beginnings, though somewhat stalled by the disregard of his Uncle Phil (Steve Carell), and the downright gorgeous cinematography of Vittorio Storaro that bathes all of golden age Hollywood in gold lends Café Society this vibrant and crisp feeling that resonates strongly with the modern audience hoping to catch a glimpse of the glitz and glamour of 1930's Hollywood that is well-documented, but too rarely brought to life. This fascination can only last so long though, when it becomes clear Allen's latest isn't necessarily about the introspection of this period in history or even a story that compliments the time period in lending insight to the names and faces we all know, but would like to know better. Instead, Café Society becomes a story solely about the romantic plight of Bobby, an Allen surrogate that Eisenberg again plays tremendously without the burden of having the actual Allen co-star alongside him as he did in 2012's To Rome With Love, but as with that film Café Society ends up offering little more than Allen's insecure yet intellectual quips on love, life, and religion among other things. Unfortunately, at this point such musings without an exceptional story on which to convey them simply feel like little more than standard meditations. It is unfortunate there isn't more imagination and wonder behind this latest excursion of Allen's for Café Society's potential initially feels as fresh and crisp as Bobby's outlook upon arriving in Los Angeles.

EQUALS Review

Note: This is a reprint of my review for Equals, which originally ran on September 15, 2015 after seeing it at the Toronto Film Festival. I am publishing it again today as it hits select theaters this weekend.

Man, that Nicholas Hoult really likes himself some Romeo & Juliet stories, doesn't he? If you recall, he made a little subversion of the zombie genre back in 2013 that also borrowed from Shakespeare's doomed story of young lovers. While Warm Bodies at least had the sense to have a sense of humor about itself Equals is not that kind of movie, but instead plays it completely straight allowing it to end up completely boring. From the outset of the film it all feels familiar. One can see where this thing is going from a mile away and I'm not even sure how anyone read Nathan Parker's (Moon) script and thought it was a good idea to make this movie again. Again you ask? Yeah, do you recall a little 2005 Michael Bay film by the name of The Island? Remember how that film was accused of ripping off another movie? Well, I'm sure the makers of the 1979 film, Parts: The Clonus Horror, found inspiration from another source (George Lucas?) and their source before that (George Orwell?). This happens all the time. I'm not saying Equals has done anything wrong as far as copyright infringement goes, but I am saying it feels like they took out the clone aspect of The Island, added in some aspects of The Giver and threw in a third act R & J twist and called it a day. Director Drake Doremus made a nice little examination of young love with his breakout hit in 2011, Like Crazy, but this utopian set version of that story yields nothing fresh or interesting.

First Trailer for BILLY LYNN’S LONG HALFTIME WALK from Director Ang Lee

Ang Lee's latest endeavor, Billy Lynn's Long Halftime Walk, easily made the top three of my most anticipated films of the year list based solely on the credentials the film was sporting so to finally see some footage and feel reassured in that choice is beyond satisfying. Lee is a master filmmaker and one of the most diverse auteurs in the game at the moment. Over the course of his last three features alone the director has taken us from Woodstock in the summer of 1969 to being stranded in the middle of the Pacific Ocean and now we join him at the halftime show of a Dallas Cowboys game. Based on the novel by Ben Fountain that was published in 2012, the story follows Lynn (newcomer Joe Alwyn) who is part of the Bravo Squad unit that's been fighting in Iraq. After a brief but intense fight anointed as "the Battle of Al-Ansakar Canal", Lynn and seven other surviving members return to the U.S. and are hailed as war heroes. These war heroes are sent on a "Victory Tour" by the government and as part of this tour, Bravo Squad are invited as guests to the annual Thanksgiving game featuring the Cowboys. The disenchantment with the notions those of us in the safe haven of America have of war against what actually goes on in battle seems to be the juxtaposing theme Lee is shooting for here as we get only a few glimpses of the flashbacks that cause Alwyn's Lynn to more or less break down in the middle of this celebration. In short, given the inherently deep and somewhat controversial subject matter I'm eager to see what conclusions and ideas Lee has drawn with his film. The movie will also be notable for having been shot at 120 frames per second in 4K native 3D and the clarity of such images produced in this format is certainly visible in this first look. Billy Lynn's Long Halftime Walk also stars Garrett Hedlund, Kristen Stewart, Vin Diesel, Steve Martin, Chris Tucker, Tim Blake Nelson, and opens on November 11th, 2016.

International Trailer for Woody Allen's CAFE SOCIETY

For the last month or so I've been listening to a podcast called You Must Remember This which chronicles the "The secret and/or forgotten history of Hollywood's first century." More specifically I've just completed last fall's series about MGM that gave fifteen episodes worth of stories about the heyday of the most famous studio that more or less created the studio system the golden age of Hollywood is known for. Throughout those episodes there were plenty of insights I wasn't previously aware of and of course facets of the industry that were beyond fascinating, but I bring this up only because it informs how excited I am about the latest film from auteur Woody Allen. Led by the appealing pairing of Jesse Eisenberg and Kristen Stewart Café Society follows a young man who arrives in Hollywood during the 1930's with the hope of working in the film industry. Upon arrival, he falls in love and finds himself swept up in the society that defined the spirit of the age. More than anything else about this trailer it is the visual vibrancy that stands out. Allen's films tend to always have a certain small or confined feel to them as if the director is constantly creating within his own, small world, but there is some actual scope to this trailer with the luscious costume design and cinematography only adding to the sense of time and place. I wasn't a huge fan of last years Irrational Man, but I enjoyed Magic in the Moonlight well enough with its period setting and of course Midnight in Paris is one of Allen's best works in his distinguished career and with this looking very much in line with those if not exactly exploring the same ideas I can't wait to see what the full film holds. Café Society also stars Corey Stoll, Steve Carell, Parker Posey, Jeannie Berlin, Blake Lively, Ken Scott, and is set to open the 69th Annual Cannes Film Festival.

First Trailer for EQUALS Starring Kristen Stewart

The first trailer has arrived for director Drake Doremus' (Like Crazy) new science fiction film, Equals, starring Kristen Stewart and Nicholas Hoult. A futuristic love story set in a world where emotions have been eradicated the film is indeed as rote as that description makes it sound with only the aesthetic standing to set it apart. We've seen this story countless times before and trust me when I say Dormeus' take unfortunately offers nothing new on the subject and resorts to a clichéd visual style to relay this age old cautionary tale. I saw the film in Toronto last year and while I like both lead performers the final product felt as if, "they took out the clone aspect of The Island, added in some aspects of The Giver, threw in a third act Romeo & Juliet twist and called it a day. Director Drake Doremus made a nice little examination of young love with his breakout hit in 2011, Like Crazy, but this utopian set version of that story yields nothing fresh or interesting." Needless to say, I wasn't enthralled with the premise nor its execution, but the visual style is at least something genuinely attractive to distract us from the standard story. Reservations aside concerning the actual product, this trailer does an incredibly effective job of selling the love story and the style of it all with hardly any dialogue until the last possible moment. I only wish the actual film might have been been as, well, emotional. Equals also stars Guy Pearce, Bel Powley, Jacki Weaver, Kate Lyn Sheil, Toby Huss with distributor A24 scheduling it for a summer release. You can read my full review from TIFF here.

TIFF 2015: EQUALS Review

Man, that Nicholas Hoult really likes himself some Romeo & Juliet stories, doesn't he? If you recall, he made a little subversion of the zombie genre back in 2013 that also borrowed from Shakespeare's doomed story of young lovers. While Warm Bodies at least had the sense to have a sense of humor about itself Equals is not that kind of movie, but instead plays it completely straight allowing it to end up completely boring. From the outset of the film it all feels familiar. One can see where this thing is going from a mile away and I'm not even sure how anyone read Nathan Parker's (Moon) script and thought it was a good idea to make this movie again. Again you ask? Yeah, do you recall a little 2005 Michael Bay film by the name of The Island? Remember how that film was accused of ripping off another movie? Well, I'm sure the makers of the 1979 film, Parts: The Clonus Horror, found inspiration from another source (George Lucas?) and there source before that (George Orwell?). This happens all the time. I'm not saying Equals has done anything wrong as far as copyright infringement goes, but I am saying it feels like they took out the clone aspect of The Island, added in some aspects of The Giver and threw in a third act R & J twist and called it a day. Director Drake Doremus made a nice little examination of young love with his breakout hit in 2011, Like Crazy, but this utopian set version of that story yields nothing fresh or interesting.

AMERICAN ULTRA Review

American Ultra is fine. It is somewhat ambitious and somewhat derivative, but most of the time it plays things right down the middle and offers little more than we expect. It is subtly silly, not laugh out loud hilarious though it maintains it's ridiculousness throughout given it's honest with itself and well aware of what it is. In short, the film is a trivial exercise in triviality given it makes light of typically serious subjects such as secret agents and government operations, but will never be seen as more than a tiny blip on the pop culture radar. This is no crime against humanity as those who have even a modicum of interest in something akin to this will likely give it a shot while those who don't, won't and are not really missing out on much. Sure, American Ultra has it's redeemers, but none are strong enough to qualify it for a recommendation and while I sat watching the film, both amused and bemused for much of the time strangely enough, I couldn't help but to think how inconsequential it all felt. I didn't actively dislike the film, in fact I was more than happy to sit down and watch both Jesse Eisenberg and Kristen Stewart again as I've come to really enjoy Adventureland more and more over the years, but never throughout the course of experiencing this film did I find myself invested in any aspect of what was happening. It's almost as if the film is so trivial that it's not even worth saying much about it, but that would be to diminish the solid qualities and obvious heart that has gone into creating the product and I genuinely hate to minimize that effort to less than it is. Whether it be in the inherent chemistry between our two leads, the strong supporting cast that is selling the mess out of this outlandish material or the rather deft tone of the film as a whole there are certainly selling points and things to enjoy. The problem is, that deft quality seems to be one the film owes more to it's script than to it's director and some of that intended mentality was lost in translation.

First Red-Band Trailer for AMERICAN ULTRA

Adventureland feels like one of those forgotten gems that no one ever really gave a chance because expectations set it up as something else. It was director Greg Mottolla's follow-up to Superbad and we all expected more of the same, but Adventureland was a more personal journey-slight, but precise and really is worth a re-watch. All that is to say that it's good to see Jesse Eisenberg and Kristen Stewart on screen together again, this time in something of another stoner comedy. Penned by American Werewolf in London, Animal House and Blues Brothers director John Landis's son, Max, and directed by Project X helmer Nima Nourizadeh the film is a hard-R comedy about a stoner who is set to propose to his girlfriend and play out a typical existence in their sleepy, small-town when everything goes nuts after being disrupted by a past Eisenberg's character didn't know he had in the form of a government operation that subconsciously made him a secret agent. Combining multiple, seemingly opposite genres has always been a way to generate something fresh feeling and this first red-band trailer certainly does that for this film. It seems only yesterday I considered Eisenberg the lesser of he and Michael Cera, but since The Social Network Eisenberg has continued to prove the more versatile actor of the two. While he can certainly handle dramatic material and even has a flair for the outrageous and rather confident roles that wouldn't seem to fit his personality his roots seem to have always been in comedy. Those muscles look as if they're being stretched quite nicely here and I can't wait to see this late-summer stoner comedy that should be good for plenty of laughs if not something a little more substantial. American Ultra also stars Topher Grace, Walton Goggins, Connie Britton, Bill Pullman, Tony Hale and opens on August 21st.

STILL ALICE Review

Honest to a fault, Still Alice feels as heartbreaking as you might expect any traumatic event in your own personal life to affect you. The story is basic, the people are familiar and the storytelling is uncomplicated. In some fashion you might peg the film as something of a Lifetime story in pedigreed actors clothing, but it is only because Alzheimer's has become such a hackneyed topic at this point. This is unfortunate as the disease is of course a very serious one as well as being close to soul-crushing for those who bear witness to their loved ones slowly drifting away from the person they once were. Thankfully, I've never had to deal with the disease in any form with any family members, but as it's been used in films before it is easy to see why storytellers not only position it to gain large amounts of sympathy for their characters, but depend on it to pull in the entire emotional investment of their film. When used correctly though, stories concerning Alzheimer's can not only be affecting and moving, but like Still Alice, they can be eye-opening. There are moments within the film that naturally ring familiar and tread the line of being somewhat overly-sentimental and manipulative but this is only due to the timing and use of lyrical songs as well as the inclusion of a big speech to clarify the emotional peak of our protagonist. These moments are few and far between the more personal, small highlights of what it's like to exist outside these moments though. This introspective look is what sets the film apart from something you might see on late night cable along with, of course, the lead performance of Julianne Moore that has all but guaranteed her an Academy Award this year. Still Alice is not a film that screams innovation and isn't even anything to necessarily write home about, but it does take you in completely as you give yourself over to its briskly paced hour and forty minute run time. Concerning itself with the basics of life and the unforgiving nature of the disease at the heart of its story Still Alice provides a no frills look at both deterioration and inadequacy in the human spirit that cannot be controlled and is all the more poignant for it.

SNOW WHITE & THE HUNTSMEN Review

The most disappointing thing about Snow White & the Huntsmen is the fact that it just wasn't as grand as it should have been. Period. There could be no more to this review than that and it would be understood what I thought about it and why I think it. That it were a disappointment and that it could have been more. This is a case of when a movie looks truly promising and epic in the trailers but ends up in the final product being something much closer to bland. It elicits no real response from the audience while telling a story we have all seen before without offering any real variance on it. The characters are there and some of them are greatly realized but the anchor of the film, that title character is anything but. The film looks gorgeous and first time feature director Rupert Sanders surely knows where to place his camera and how to create a large, sweeping landscape look like exactly that while allowing imaginative enough creatures to inhabit these lands. In many ways the film seemed to reference a Guillermo Del Toro type tone with its roots in fiction and a layer of weird added over it, but what falls short here is the storytelling. We know the story, the problem is not that but instead lies in finding a new, fresh way to look at it. There is certainly more than one way to approach a story and while Snow White & the Huntsmen is of course the more darker of the Snow White tales out this year and has a definite vision it lacks a singular voice. It lacks a hero we can really believe in.

Snow White (Kristen Stewart) readies herself to scare off a troll by,
get this, screaming at it. Somehow, it works.

Needless to say the real source of the problem here is none other than Kristen Stewart. I have wanted to give her the benefit of the doubt, I really have. I even watched the first two Twilight films to try and give the series a shot but just couldn't go past that. I think Robert Pattinson certainly has a career outside of Edward, but things are beginning to look slim for Stewart. She seems much better when in secondary roles as in Adventureland and Into the Wild. I even enjoyed her in The Runaways and am anxious to see how she fares in the upcoming adaptation of Jack Kerouac's On the Road but here she just doesn't have the skill to handle it. She is supposed to be portraying the fairest of them all, a princess who in this version has some real fight in her and decides to take matters into her own hands. When going up against the concoction of a witch that Charlize Theron has devised you need someone who can portray those strong qualities with real vindication and Stewart is simply to frail and feeble an actress to go for it. Speaking of Ms. Theron, she certainly has outdone Mirror Mirror's Julia Roberts in every way of portraying the evil Queen. While in Roberts defense hers was a much lighter role, Theron has brought her A-game to the table and is resilient in her commitment to the over the top qualities of her character. When she commits to a trait she sticks with it and we see that play out through the whole of the story. In the beginning, that necessary bit of exposition, focuses heavily on the evil Queen known here as Ravenna and how she is on a quest to simply stay young, earn her immortality no matter what it takes. Her life-long mission doubles as a message about the role of women in society but then we forget about all that because the film decides to take long breaks from the Queen and focus more on the heroine who can't seem to make us care.

The Huntsmen (Chris Hemsworth) joins the dwarfs to try and help
Snow White defeat the evil Queen.

While I enjoy the idea of these fairy tales being turned into big live action epics, it goes without saying that all of them have fared pretty poorly in their transition. I didn't mind the Tim Burton take on Alice in Wonderland but I didn't necessarily care for it either. I didn't care at all for Catherine Hardwicke's Red Riding Hood attempt last year though it had plenty of talent going for it. Snow White & the Huntsmen is definitely the best out of the bunch, but again, that really isn't saying much. The Grimm inspirations are in place from the beginning as Ravenna takes over Snow White and her fathers kingdom. She kills her poor dad on their wedding night and locks the princess up in one of the towers. Ravenna is content with devouring young girls looks to keep her the fairest in the land while running the kingdom into the ground, that is, until one day the mirror has some different news to report. We find out the queen needs Snow White's heart to keep her forever youthful and immortal while allowing her to continue her reign as fairest of them all. Wouldn't you know on that same day Snow White decides she has it in her to escape. She does so and is chased into the dark forest by the Queens guards and albino brother with that pesky haircut. The Queen really needs that heart though and so she recruits the Huntsmen (Thor himself Chris Hemsworth) and sends him out to bring her back. We know he isn't going to bring her back, we certainly know they will fall in love but I do have to give the story some credit for allowing itself to not rely on the love aspect of this whole deal. Snow White and Thor team-up, meet the dwarfs and round up the refugee army led by Snow White's papa's old Duke (and his son who therein lies the love triangle) to storm the castle and kill the Queen. Sound familiar? It is and it is sometimes just as slow and sloggish as you might expect a two hour telling of that story to be, but alas it has its moments dammit!

Ravenna (Charlize Theron) talks to her mirror, mirror on the wall.

As in Mirror, Mirror one of the highlights here is certainly the set of the seven dwarfs. In this more serious version we have a regal group of actors portraying the helpful and prophesying companions. Bob Hoskins leads the crew as Muir who is the one real anchor of heart in the film. He allows us to see what Stewart should have been playing, what her character should represent rather than the awkward invert that Stewart is giving us. I hate to point the finger at Stewart so much as she might be a really cool chick who is just trying to do her thing the best she can, but she is the one who has chosen to take on this role. She knew if she had the chops to pull it off or not and she should have known her persona was not going to allow her the right qualities to play this character correctly. Take the job because you think you can give the best representation of the character not because it will add another hit to your resume. That is where I have the problem with Stewart, this has nothing to do with her public persona, who she is dating, or what the tabloids are saying; this is purely based on her range as an actress and I don't think she had what it takes to pull it off and I think she knew that too. It is clear when it comes down to that final rallying speech where you should want to stand up in the theater and join the fight. All I and everyone else in the screening could do was hold back laughter as she yelled her lines to the audience. Delivering not a shred of real emotion or genuine relation to the words she was saying. No, she was simply spouting her lines in a higher volume. There are plenty of reasons to see the film, Ian McShane, Ray Winstone, Toby Jones, and Nick Frost all offer lovely supporting bits as the dwarfs and Hemsworth does his best with an underdeveloped cliche as well as the part about it looking amazing. The end no doubt is left open for a sequel and let us only hope that the studio decides to go Bond style on this potential franchise and casts another actress in the title role next time she decides to go all Joan of Arc.

   

SNOW WHITE & THE HUNTSMEN Review

The most disappointing thing about Snow White & the Huntsmen is the fact that it just wasn't as grand as it should have been. Period. There could be no more to this review than that and it would be understood what I thought about it and why I think it. That it were a disappointment and that it could have been more. This is a case of when a movie looks truly promising and epic in the trailers but ends up in the final product being something much closer to bland. It elicits no real response from the audience while telling a story we have all seen before without offering any real variance on it. The characters are there and some of them are greatly realized but the anchor of the film, that title character is anything but. The film looks gorgeous and first time feature director Rupert Sanders surely knows where to place his camera and how to create a large, sweeping landscape look like exactly that while allowing imaginative enough creatures to inhabit these lands. In many ways the film seemed to reference a Guillermo Del Toro type tone with its roots in fiction and a layer of weird added over it, but what falls short here is the storytelling. We know the story, the problem is not that but instead lies in finding a new, fresh way to look at it. There is certainly more than one way to approach a story and while Snow White & the Huntsmen is of course the more darker of the Snow White tales out this year and has a definite vision it lacks a singular voice. It lacks a hero we can really believe in.