Blancanieves (2012)

Blancanieves, one of the three Snow White movies to arrive in 2012 (this one was released in the U.S. in 2013), starts out interesting but winds up being rather a disappointment. This is a silent film set in the 1910s and 1920s, but it isn't really ever clear why this needs to be a silent film just because it is set in the silent era of cinema. There is absolutely never a payoff in Blancanieves for it being a silent film. No theatrical flourish in which we suddenly have sound, for example, the way that we get in 2011's The Artist.

The highlight of Blancanieves – as with Snow White and the Huntsman and Mirror Mirror – is the evil stepmother who, in this film, is played with divalicious, hilarious relish by Maribel Verdú. She's fabulous in this, and every single thing she does is over the top and wonderful. (The Spanish poster, as you can see, is not at all confused about who the star of this film is.)

Snow White is also a bullfighter in this film, and that allows for plenty of fun, too, but again there is no real emotional payoff. She doesn't have a relationship with any of the bulls, and neither do we.

The one place where I truly thought the movie was going to break new ground is with Snow White's love interest. In Blancanieves, the film indicates that Snow White's love interest is actually one of the dwarves (the very handsome Sergio Dorado). And so it looks as if Blancanieves will tell us that he is her one true love and it will be him who wakes her up with a kiss. But... then the film refuses to let that happen, and it ends, instead, with a whimper. Snow White becomes part of a freak show and no one ever wakes her up at all. It's a very disappointing finish to a movie that had rather a lot going for it.