Movie Review - Blancanieves

Blancanieves (2013)

Starring Maribel Verdú (queen), Daniel Giménez Cacho (father), Sofía Oria (young), and Macarena García (old) 

Directed by Pablo Berger

***This film is currently streaming on Netflix***

We all know the story of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs so telling it in a silent black-and-white format as it is in Pablo Berger's Blancanieves won't throw anyone into fits of confusion.  The question is, though, did this tale really need to be updated in this way?  Ultimately, the answer is no and while I appreciated Berger's screenplay's different spin on the Grimm tale, I found myself fighting boredom and stopping the film multiple times as I viewed it.

Boredom never sets in when the evil Encarna (Maribel Verdú) is onscreen, however.  Unfortunately, when she's not in the picture, Blancanieves doesn't have the emotional push to get me to care about the story which is a little odd considering the fact that this flick actually goes into Snow White's background much more than any previous Snow White movie I've seen.  Here, bull fighter Antonio Villata (Daniel Giménez Cacho) is gravely gored during a bullfight.  While he survives only to be a paraplegic, his grief-stricken pregnant wife dies during childbirth.  Unable to live on his own, Villata's live-in nurse cares for and eventually marries him.  This live-in nurse -- the evil Encarna.

That child that was borne to Villata's wife?  Young Carmencita (Sofía Oria) lives with her grandmother for several years until she dies of a heart attack leaving Carmencita essentially orphaned.  Having never met her father before, Carmencita is taken to his palatial abode, but upon arriving is greeted by Encarna who forces her to sleep in the chicken coop and forbids her to see her father.  Eventually, Carmencita breaks Encarna's rule and her relationship with her father blooms in secret without Encarna's knowledge.  Needless to say, this is where the typical Snow White story kicks in.  Once Encarna discovers this familial connection several years later (Carmencita is now a teenager played by Macarena Garcia), she is banished from the house, hunted down by "the hunter," and meets some dwarfs.

While I appreciate the updating and the fleshing out of the story, the film isn't visually stimulating enough (despite a charming "old" look) or unique enough story-wise to captivate.  Blancanieves really only comes alive whenever the scenery-chewing Encarna is onscreen and that just isn't enough to make the flick work.

The RyMickey Rating:  C