( CNN ) -- Top-billed Julia Roberts is comprehensively miscast in `` Mirror Mirror , '' the first of the year 's two big-budget , live-action `` Snow White '' movies . Even so , this pretty bauble of a picture -- which looks like it was filmed in a giant snow globe - scrapes together enough invention , exuberance and goofiness to skate over this blatant misstep , and Roberts herself is so willing to give it the old college try you wind up rooting for her regardless . She plays the evil Queen , Snow White 's murderous stepmother -- a role that calls for cold-blooded malice , arrogance , cunning and class , qualities conspicuously lacking in this warm , earthy , intuitive actress , and who settles for a snooty ( but inconsistent ) English accent as the next best thing . Still , good for Julia for having some fun at the expense of midlife vanity . As we all know , the Queen is hung up on what her mirror tells her about getting old -- she ca n't bear being eclipsed in the beauty stakes by her stepdaughter Snow ( Lily Collins , Phil 's daughter ) . In one of the movie 's funniest jibes , she submits to an excruciating beauty treatment involving bird poop , snails and scorpion stings ( a fairytale botox ) to give her that extra edge -- a regimen that 's probably only a slight exaggeration on what Hollywood royalty routinely puts up with to keep in front of the cameras past a certain age . Roberts , 44 , has never been that kind of glamour-puss . It 's her personality that makes her so attractive , so she can afford to smile . And she cuts quite a figure in the outrageously decadent dresses , designed for her by Eiko Ishioka . The Japanese stylist , who died in January , is best known in the West for her costumes for Francis Ford Coppola 's `` Bram Stoker 's Dracula '' as well as pop stars Bjork and Grace Jones , and the opening ceremony at the Beijing Olympics . Ishioka 's aggressively sumptuous , sometimes surrealistic , creations have also been a staple in all three of Tarsem Singh 's previous films : `` The Cell , '' `` The Fall '' and , recently , `` Immortals . '' Her contribution to `` Mirror Mirror '' is so pronounced , it 's only fitting the film is dedicated to her . Roberts ' gowns include a vermilion peacock creation so ornate it requires its own tax levy on the hard-pressed peasantry -- but Ishioka 's genius is equally well displayed in the perfectly chosen headwear that goes a long way to distinguishing the personalities of the film 's seven dwarfs . These pugnacious rogues ( Napoleon , Wolf , Grub , Butcher and Grimm are some of their names ) are a very different crew from Disney 's loveable gold-diggers , but they 're Singh 's best defense against a wobbly , hit-and-miss script . Woodland bandits , they dress up as bandy-legged giants ( Ishioka provides them with stilts that seem to be made of accordion sleeves ) to set upon unwary travelers , like Armie Hammer 's Prince Alcott . In due course , they take in the exiled Snow -- in return for housecleaning and cooking services -- and teach her how to stand on her own two feet . Collins is charming as the innocent princess , the poison apple in her stepmother 's eye , but the film 's real surprise is the tongue-in-cheek tone , a lightness that stands in sharp relief to the turgid breast-beating this filmmaker went in for in `` Immortals . '' It 's been a while since Nathan Lane got this much screen time to camp it up , as the Queen 's butler , Brighton ( even if he does spend some of it in the form of cockroach ) , and Hammer 's a hoot as the arrogant -- but oh-so-eligible -- prince . `` Mirror Mirror '' may not add up to the sum of its better parts -- and it 's a curious time of year to release it -- but there should be an audience for a frivolous family film with this many frills and ruffles .
In ` The Cell , '' Armie Hammer 's plays the evil queen , Lily Collins murderous stepmother . Julia Roberts is charming as the innocent princess . Lily Collins a hoot as the arrogant -- but oh-so-eligible -- prince .