Snow White: The Fairest of Them All (2001)

You won't be disappointed!

Such a frustrating disappointment

From my favorite movies..

There's no way I can possibly love it entirely but I just think its ridiculously bad, but enjoyable at the same time.

I absolutely adored Kristin Kreuk in her story arc on CHUCK, and though I never watch actual television, sneaked regular peeks away from DVD on the channel that was airing SMALLVILLE. That led to BEAUTY & THE BEAST, which I enthused about at the beginning, but... okay, that's another story. But as the magic fizzled out of BEAUTY & THE BEAST, I longed for Kristin back in her heyday, so I did some research, Wikipedia, IMDb, and found SNOW WHITE, a Canadian TV movie, so, some trepidation there, and I couldn't find a trailer. But I took the gamble on Kristin, she had to have been a pretty kid, glam-wise the movie was sure not to disappoint.Turns out I was quite right. Kristin, with her luminous eyes, porcelain-white skin, raven-black hair offsetting those gold star jewelry, makes a wonderful Snow White, certainly she is an excellent choice. On Wikipedia, described as 'doe-eyed' yeah, exactly! Notice that she also got criticized, dismissed as 'bland' to which I feel obliged to point out that the script follows the current trend of highlighting the Evil Stepmother, whether she be Charlize Theron, Julia Roberts, Sigourney Weaver, or in this case, Miranda Richardson. So don't blame little Kristin, who, anyway, was a kid back then. Yes, her part should have been more active, but then again, as for the one of the multitude of SNOW WHITEs that I also saw, SNOW WHITE AND THE HUNTSMAN, which deteriorated into a militant Joan of Arc display that completely overthrew the original fairy-tale, surely I don't want anything like that, thank you very much, but no thank you. You have to be a kid for this, so be warned, people. But toddlers might be too frightened to go to bed alone after seeing the Satanic messenger I have since learned is called The Green-Eyed One. Yet older children won't bother with this. Moms watching it with their kids might like it, though, it is truly charming, holes and all. Me myself I collect stuff like this, early appearances of stars, so okay! but I do groan every time there's a gooey-sugary dwarf face on the screen, Vincent Schiavelli excluded. A whole lot of work went into this. Magical bedazzling color, a lot of charming animals, all in all, for a TV-movie with a limited budget, these guys elevated themselves onto a next plane, so I have to let them have it: You came close, yet you went and screwed it up in many ways. The whole thing is quite uneven, we have kind of a new take on the original, yet we go through a bit of a bumpy ride along the way, you kinda feel like a fool for watching at times, then it rights itself again, then the cart tips over again...Miranda generally gets rave reviews, but I think she's kinda corny, just a big gutsy performance, but totally unpolished, just, like, here I am, I give a whole lot to the part, I'm really at it, film me, there it is, you got it. But the real (and major) surprise is Vera Farmiga, an unexpected appearance, I'm not going to say too much, 'cause I don't wanna carry Spoiler Alert labels, but this very pretty young lady, wow, that was some hectic performance, and she goes around looking like Sarah Jessica Parker but is almost scary!A drinking game for toddlers: (mugs of cocoa) Drink one every time there's a fade-out. Gee, the director must have been impressed with his new camera's fade-out functions. Action, fade- out, something happens, fade-out, another thing, fade-out, revelation, fade-out. Poor little toddlers will be so fulla sweetness in next to no time they'd fall into bed without a nighty night. I repeat, for a Canadian TV movie, lots more than you'd expect. I can see why it was released on DVD, it's got a lot of potential, even though it ultimately fell short of its own potential.Yet I'm going to feel like a louse if I give it only a 6. Ah, let's just call my 7 actually a 7 Minus, OK?

Those reliable guys at Hallmark Entertainment are behind this cheapjack adaptation of the classic fairytale, filled with cheesy special effects and familiar faces. It's often an example of so-bad-it's-good entertainment, with plenty of overacting and bizarre situations to take your mind off the shortcomings of the script and set-up.Certainly compared to the recent likes of SNOW WHITE AND THE HUNTSMAN, SNOW WHITE: THE FAIREST OF THEM ALL is a cheap version of the tale. Rubbery masks are used for some of the characters, and the CGI effects that do occur are, well, rather cheesy. The acting is hardly of a high standard either: as Snow White, Kristin Kreuk (the world's first part-Chinese Snow White?) is pretty but wooden, while Miranda Richardson can't resist but to ham it up terribly as the evil Queen.Still, there are better actors in support, and these include Clancy Brown who looks fantastic underneath some truly 'Grimm' make-up. Warwick Davis unsurprisingly appears as one of the dwarfs, and there's a nice comedic turn from the underutilised Vincent Schiavelli. Watch out for Vera Farmiga in an early turn.

Put succinctly this film starts out OK, then quickly descends into the most appalling acting and directing I've seen in a long time. The cut to the baby is so badly done it would not credit a first year video student. The story is odd, the special effects next to dire, the acting abysmal, photography average, lighting poor and sets/location poor. There is only one saving grace to this movie and that is the welcome presence of the fantastic Vera Farmiga. Her skills transcend this movie so much that she ought to have embarrassed everyone in it. I grudgingly accept that Miranda Richardson wasn't dire, but neither was she good. Kristin Kreuk looks like some kind of manufactured doll, and in fact acts like one too.If you love Vera Farmiga's skills watch this if nothing else than for her: she totally shines. As for the rest, it's an hour and a half of your life utterly and totally wasted.

This film although having a low budget was brilliantly done and looked beautiful. I think Kristen Kreuk was good but at times a bit bland as there was a lack of expression, I think she would of done better if there were more of her at the beginning. Miranda Richardson was brilliant, the mirror mirror on the wall bit was nicely done. The plot is much better and more interesting than the original Disney version. I loved the dwarfs and thought it was original and a good idea to have a tall dwarf for the miserable one as he would be miserable living in a tiny house when he is 6ft! My favourite scene was when she poisoned the apple and then changed very cleverly into snow whites mother. Overall a really nice film and one in my collection. I rate it 9/10.