The new Snow White has clearly been constructed with modern sensibility, but its misguided choices leave it stumbling in a daze of squandered potential and poorly conceived notions. At its center, however, is a lead actress whose performance is a beacon of emotional sincerity and richness.

Let’s start with the positives: Rachel Zegler’s Snow White deserves praise. She walks the tightrope of tradition and innovation with ease, wearing the iconic dress and infusing the character with fresh energy. While the film tries to reimagine Snow White for the new generation, Zegler’s is the performance that injects any depth. She infuses some much-needed energy and personality into the princess, giving a Snow White who is no passive damsel in distress but a dynamic character. Her sugarieness, interspersed with glimpses of confidence, is a breath of fresh air, particularly in the sequences where Snow White proactively saves and re-met Jonathan, a Robin Hood-like figure and NOT a Prince Charming, played with conviction by Andrew Burnap. Zegler’s attempt to encompass both the classic innocence of Snow White and the strength required of a modern audience is admirable, and her screen presence is irresistibly charming.

All of that aside, the film itself is a patchwork that doesn’t feel coherent, with no sense of narrative or emotional arc. The script starts off on a bad note, the story neither taking off nor engaging the audience in any way. The scenes are separate, and the plot, or better said, the lack of plot, results in a climax that appears and disappears in a comically abrupt fashion. This results in the uncomfortable impression that the story has been chopped and re-arranged in the cutting room, the final result being a bizarre and incoherent narrative that can’t help but disintegrate.

The CGI-created new dwarfs are a disappointing misstep. Snow White’s animated dwarfs were quaint and charming, but these bizarre, almost dead digital replacements are more robotic puppets than characters we can root for. It’s as if the filmmakers made the film digitally just for the sake of technology, not for warmth, personality, and the look of magic that made the original Snow White so legendary. And this bizarre visual choice, combined with the film’s theme-park forest and over-glossed landscapes, only help contribute to the film’s inability to transport the viewer into a cohesive world.
The dwarfs are just one example of how world-building in the film is lacking. The idea of the mining economy of the dwarfs, for instance, is never explored at all. What do they ever do with gems they dig up? The film does not even try to answer the most basic questions, and that is proof of its inability to keep tabs on its details and ultimately, to fully engage the audience within its world.

Musically, the new tracks are forgettable at best, with none even remotely memorable such as the all-time classics of the original. This lack of memorable tracks further denies the film any lasting impact, with little to say but the performances.

Gal Gadot’s Evil Queen is charming but lacks the range to add depth to the character to make her a fully menacing one. She is one-dimensional, a sparklingly evil diva who is denied vulnerability. She does get the show-stopping musical number, a villain’s anthem, possibly the high point of the film. She is hindered by the material. She can do no more than look stunning in outrageous attire. The character lacks the complexity on several levels required to make her a fully believable villain.

Rachel Zegler’s performance is a sincere effort to breathe new life into a character that we’ve all known for centuries. It’s obvious she gave it her all, but, alas, the movie she’s in can’t keep up with her. Snow White is currently a lost chance: a visually overindulgent and narratively confusing movie that only sporadically sees its potential.
See Also: Snow White trailer: Rachel Zegler is up against Gal Gadot’s Evil Queen