(USA, 105 min.)
Dir. Kenneth Branagh, Writ. Chris
Weitz
Starring: Cate Blanchett, Lily
James, Richard Madden, Helena Bonham Carter, Derek Jacobi, Sophie McShera,
Holliday Grainger, Nonso Anozie
You know the story. Poor little
rich girl meets prince. Prince likes commoner. Pumpkin, mice, Bibbidi-Bobbidi-Boo, glass slipper, and
all that. Chaos ensues. And they live happily ever after.
It’s Cinderella, every kid’s favourite tale of unlikely love. The beloved Disney animation gets a live action remake in this stately adaptation by Kenneth Branagh (Hamlet, Thor). Cinderella marks this year’s annual return to a Disney classic, and the studio behind Mickey Mouse might finally hit its stride in this enjoyable and impeccably crafted return to one of its greatest classics.
Cinderella sits above ugly stepsisters
like Alice in Wonderland and Oz: The Great and Powerful as it does
its best to recapture the magic of the original film while also delighting parents
who grew up with the classic and want to recapture the magic with their kids.
Last year’s Maleficent offers the
closest thing to a fit with the glass slipper that Disney’s found before Cinderella, since the inspired Angelina
Jolie film furthers the tale of Sleeping
Beauty with a provocative play on consent and the rights of women, but the
dark allegory doesn’t always jive with Disney’s signature cheeriness. Cinderella, though, fits the mood, tone,
and texture of the original just as well as the glass slipper fits Cindy. It
might fit too well, actually, since the film’s almost fateful to the original
to the point of redundancy. Cinderella
could easily play side by side with its animated sister and offer the exact
same thing. The animated film virtually serves as a storyboard to this return
to Cinderella, which is both the film’s
success and its failing.
The contemporary doesn’t seep into
Cinderella as well as it does for Maleficent, which is too bad since Cinderella’s tale of a commoner finding
love beneath the crown could easily be The Kate Middleton Story. The few times that Cinderella tries to add some contemporary sensibility are the few
times in which it mostly stumbles, such as the clunky mantra ‘Just because it’s
what’s done, doesn’t mean it’s what should be done,’ that bridges the social
gap between Cindy and Prince Kit. The line, FYI, is a total rip-off of the
delightfully campy throwback Australia.
(Busted.) The film also
makes an earnest attempt to add diversity to the cast, yet it ends up filling
all the servant roles with visible minorities while the white kids dance at the
ball. It gets points for trying, especially for Nonso Anozie in the gallant
role of the Prince’s lead guard.
Even if this Cinderella doesn’t really say anything (or, for that matter, update
the morale that every pretty girl needs a prince to save her), it’s still an
enchanting piece of bigscreen entertainment. Cinderella works best as a throwback to fairy tales and an ode to
the magic of make believe that entrances us at the as kids in the first place.
This Cinderella has lots to like, too, thanks to the smashing casting
choices of its three key female roles. “Downton Abbey” upstart Lily James (aka
Rose in the world of the Granthams) is a spunky, spirited Cinderella. Girlish,
but strong and humble, James brings a girl-next-door charm to the role and
helps make Cinderella down to earth. Helena Bonham Carter, on the other hand,
is an obvious choice for the Fairy Godmother, but she brings exactly the kind
of eccentricity and playfulness that the role needs to guide Cinderella through its fantastical turn.
Cate Blanchett, finally, is a
truly inspired choice for the wicked stepmother, Lady Tremaine. Blanchett’s a
hoot and an appropriately large presence, but this stepmother is far less
cartoonish than the original baddie. Blanchett is far more animated than her
predecessor is, and the range of her playful wickedness finds humanity in the
villainess that one cannot see in the original film. There’s one area of
improvement to be had in Cinderella
and it comes quickly and fleetingly in a pastiche of film noir and fantasy elements
that situate Blanchett’s character within a roster of baddies rotten to the
heart. If only Cinderella focused on
the villain’s story, Disney might have hit the bull’s eye.
Still, though, I’m certainly not
the target audience for a Disney Princess movie and I think this live action
return mostly delivers. Branagh’s direction puts the film in a unique grey area
between period work and fantasyland with lavish sets that could easily double
in one of his classical Shakespeare adaptations along with eye-popping
anachronistic splashes of Tim Burton-y whimsy. The costumes by Sandy Powell are
loud and grand (Lady Tremaine’s threads are especially spectacular!) and the
sets by Dante Feretti are a fairy tale come to life. The wonderful Disney
animals might be the best impressively animated (and least distracting and
annoying) that the studio has come up with yet, for the wood mice who act as
Cinderella’s comrades are cute creators with humanlike charms, but their
adorableness doesn’t overwhelm the film. Branagh balances the various
ingredients of Cinderella rather
nicely.
Branagh’s hand at adaptation
ensures that Cinderella is as
faithful a rendition of the classic fairytale as one could be. (He is, after
all, the guy who made a four-hour Hamlet
with the original text.) Enjoy the magic of Cinderella
exactly as you remember it.
Rating: ★★★½ (out of ★★★★★)
Rating: ★★★½ (out of ★★★★★)
Screens with:
Frozen Fever
(USA,
8 min.)
Dir.
Chris Buck, Jennifer Lee
Starring: Kristen Bell, Adele Nazeem
Cinderella seems far less derivative than it could have thanks to the redundant
short that precedes it. Everyone still has Frozen
fever following the billion dollar Oscar winner of 2013, so Frozen Fever returns to the land of
singing ice princesses and Olaf the annoying snowman. Even an admirer of Frozen must admit that this short is completely
pointless. Frozen Fever takes the
best elements of Frozen and recycles
them with a song akin to the hit “Let it Go” as the sisters sing and dance
while Olaf does his shtick, but it all feels so effortlessly uninspired. Cinderella recaptures magic while Frozen Fever lets magic slip away. Let
it go, guys.
Rating: ★★ (out of ★★★★★)
Rating: ★★ (out of ★★★★★)
