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WHITE AS SNOW
Director: Anne Fontaine Cast: Lou de Laâge, Isabelle Huppert, Damien Bonnard, Jonathan Cohen, Vincent Macaigne, Richard Fréchette, Benoît Poelvoorde, Pablo Pauly, Charles Berling MPAA
Rating: Running Time: 1:52 Release Date: 8/13/21 (limited); 8/20/21 (wider) |
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Review by Mark Dujsik | August 19, 2021 White as Snow gives us a modern and playfully frisky version of the Grimms' fairy tale of "Snow White," but the movie's modern setting and embrace of sexual liberation are about as deep as this goes. It's a superficial piece of revisionism. Our protagonist is Claire (Lou de Laâge), a stunning beauty who works at a hotel managed by her stepmother Maud (Isabelle Huppert) and owned by the stepparent's secret beau Bernard (Charles Berling). One morning while jogging, Claire is abducted by a mysterious woman (played by Agata Buzek), thrown in the trunk of a car, and driven out of the city and into the woods. As the woman is about to shoot Claire, the young woman is saved by Pierre (Damien Bonnard), a hunter who lives in a cottage with his stuttering twin brother François (also Bonnard) and neurotic cellist Vincent (Vincent Macaigne). Seven men, including those three, eventually do come into this story, and after having a fling with her savior, Claire ends up having sex with a good number of her assorted companions (A priest, played by Richard Fréchette, is one of those friends, and we actually start to wonder how far Claire's sexual adventures might go). In the process, she goes from vacantly naïve to vacantly happy. The screenplay by director Anne Fontaine and Pascal Bonitzer doesn't offer much in way of characterization, except to make those seven men distinctly archetypical (A local veterinarian, played by Jonathan Cohen, is a clingy coward, and Pablo Pauly's Clément, the son of Benoît Poelvoorde's creepily flirtatious Charles, is a quiet tough guy). That's true of Maud, too, who, in the backtracking second chapter, is revealed to be behind the murder plot. She goes looking for her stepdaughter to finish the job. The material reduces the usually intriguing Huppert to a jealous and rather bland villain, playing nice while experimenting with poison. If Claire's story of blossoming freedom by way of sex offers a minor subversion of fairy-tale standards, Maud's role basically cements them. Some of this is sexy and occasionally funny (a trio of voyeuristic squirrels, for example), while the ending somewhat cleverly finds a solution to the fact that there's no prince charming for our metaphorical princess. White as Snow, though, is mostly about putting a modern, sensual, and winking veneer over a classic story. It's all transparent surface, revealing a pretty hollow core. Copyright © 2021 by Mark Dujsik. All rights reserved. |
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