Snow White and The Huntsman

I was never a huge fan of the Disney version of Snow White. My dark side tends to gravitate towards the original versions of fairy tales, and I remember being eight years old and reading one version where the wicked queen is punished by being forced to wear iron shoes heated in a forge and then dancing until she drops down dead. Yeah…I’ve got skeletons in my closet. I like gloom and doom.

So when I heard they were doing a re-telling that involved Charlize Theron as a power-hungry psychotic witch and Thor (Chris Hemsworth) as The Hunstman, I took myself on an Artist’s date on Friday night to the to see what the buzz was about.

First of all, hats of to Charlize Theron. Not only is she breathtakingly, achingly beautiful, but the woman has chops. Anyone see Monster? If that wasn’t enough to convince you of her phenomenal acting talent, I don’t know what will. This role was another villainess, but one more reminiscent of Lady Macbeth than Aileen Wuornos (Theron’s character in Monster), and she played it to the hilt. The thing about playing an evil queen—you’ve got to have the history behind why you turned to the dark side. You can’t just be evil for evil’s sake. Having played the role of the villain not only onstage but in my personal life as well, I can say with great certainty that it's common to become a cunt-bitch when deeply hurt and/or abandoned by your loved ones. So kudos to the Snow White screenwriters for giving us that back story, and kudos to Charlize Theron for implementing it into her performance! Wicked Queen Ravenna is not merely evil for evil’s sake—she’s the victim of great injustices done to her as a young girl (family slaughter, all that jazz) which is enough to twist the purest of hearts and instill a deep-seated need for bloodlust and revenge. Which brings me to how this story inspired my epiphany: many women not only have a Snow White complex, we also have a Wicked Queen complex as well. And I don’t think I would have arrived at this epiphany from the Disney version.

Let me explain. Snow White represents our ageless innocence. We women start out as pure little girls full of love, unselfconscious beauty, and the power to heal the world.  Along the way, we are confronted with our antagonists: vanity, self-obsession, and the idea we must become the most desirable and the most fuck-able in order to be happy. So we lose touch with the effortless grace we were born with, and instead begin to compete within ourselves and with each another to achieve the meaningless validation of being ‘hot’ in the eyes of a society that will never, ever be satisfied. 

As we age, we feel our youth and beauty slip away, and we do anything to hold onto it. Plastic surgery, expensive skin treatments, synthetic tanning, extreme weight-loss regimens, designer clothing, cosmetics, hair-style changes—the list goes on into infinity. But what the Snow White tale made me realize is that in spite of the vanity and self-obsession that stems from the inaccurate core-belief that I am not enough, I can re-energize the little girl in me who has the power to release the dark hold my Wicked Queen wants to keep over me. Rather than looking in the mirror and asking it to validate me today, I can turn away from the mirror and trust in the purity of my heart to guide me through my day. That’s what makes me “fair”…it’s the love I have inside for you and the rest of the world that is the true reflection of my beauty.

That’s all I really need to say about the movie right now. I could talk more about it-I know there are valid criticisms, and not everyone is going to interpret things the same way I do. But where I am in my life right now, I needed to see it. So I’m grateful it was out there, and I’m grateful someone had the courage to retell a story that’s been told many, many times.  It reinforced my belief that art doesn’t have to please everyone—it simply has to be made, and if it affects even one person in a positive way, it’s a success!

LMP Self-Love Suggestion: Take yourself on a date to a movie you really want to see! Don't wait for someone to take you--and don't try and get someone to match your taste--just go alone! It's a great way to spend some quality-time with a VIP--YOU!

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Snow White and The Huntsman stars Charlize Theron, Kristen Stewart, and Chris Hemsworth. Screenplay by Evan Daugherty, John Lee Hancock, and Hossein Amini.  Directed by Rupert Sanders. Released by Universal.