I mostly like to wait until the hype of a movie has relaxed down before going to watch it – and this is the same for the adaptation of 2025’s Snow White starring Rachel Zeglar and Gal Gadot. Although the hype hasn’t been about how good the film is, but the opposite – and this has piqued my intrigue.
I understand if a movie has not lived up to expectations, but after watching it at the weekend, here is my mini review:
It was lovely. The actors are talented and the creative team did the traditional story proud. I enjoyed how Robin Hood and his merry people were interlaced into the Snow White story. And as I was watching Snow White with my ten-year-old daughter, I also welcomed the balanced portrayal of the – (meeting up, lusting of, flirting with, being separated from and pining for) – relationship dynamic. The love blossomed. I think it is fine how Robin Hood kissed Snow to wake her, as this was referenced metaphorically in a song they sang together. It is positive to celebrate the beginning of a healthy and beautiful relationship. I also enjoyed the CGI next to the real-life acting because it shows the modern fusion of creativity and the different roles required to make a production work. Some may say it is ‘woke’, but these elements were integrated naturally and subtly i.e. referencing ‘queen and king’ instead of ‘king and queen’, and representing diversity. An easy watch and some elegant shots, with a contrast of angles, vibrancy and lighting. I give a 3.5 star rating out of 5. (But read on because I may be bias … )
I was younger than the age my daughter is now in the story below:
Cue some wavy lines to obscure your vision ready for the following memory share …
Time: late 1980s
Setting: primary school
Scene: Sarah* – porcelain skin and brown hair – performs the lines of Snow White out to the assembly of students and parents, Jordan (yes, that’s me) – brown skin and short black bob – her back to the audience as directed, dressed in an old coffee sack apt for the peasant she had been cast as. She quietly mouths every line of the protagonist’s script that she never got the part for, but rehearsed nonetheless because she wanted to be Snow White so much!
And now it is time for her to deliver her single line that further reinforces that she is not the Snow White people wanted to see, but the peasant who has to speak up: She projected that single line, loud from her gut to allow the words to travel over her shoulders, ‘I hear the new queen is very beautiful.’
This was an early lesson in rejection – probably not my first. And I am sharing this because I am sick of the mass of criticism towards the actress playing Snow White (Rachel Zeglar) in the new movie.
For my younger self, who stood with anticipation as the teacher announced that Sarah would get the part ‘because she looked the most like Snow White’, and I would be a street peasant (possibly for the same reason), to have an actress of colour playing this part may seem like a contrived or woke tickbox, but I consider it as progression and representation.
And all that aside, Rachel and Gal, and the rest of the creatives involved in the movie are wonderful singers and performers. Rachel and Gal deserve to be acknowledged for their talents not persecuted because they don’t fit our socially constructed narratives and personal biases. The end.
(*Sarah did a great job as Snow White despite my personal experience.)
Author and copyright: Jordan P Martin
Artwork: A.I. generated via WordPress.
Author disclaimer: #acting #film #snowwhite #rachelzeglar #nojudgement #nopreaching #inittogether #experience #writtenwithoutai