Review: Cinderella (2015)

Ella (Lily James) loves her father (Ben Chaplin) and tries to move on from the death of her mother (a strange-looking, blonde Hayley Atwell) to accept her father’s subsequent marriage to Lady Tremaine (Cate Blanchett). Lady Tremaine overhears a conversation between father and daughter confessing he will always love Ella’s mother. When Ella’s father suddenly dies whilst on business, Lady Tremaine and her two ‘ugly’ daughters Anastasia (Holliday Grainger) and Drizella (Sophie McShera) make Ella’s life a living hell. They force her to become their servant, eventually dubbing her ‘Cinderella’ and forcing her to eat scraps. Her only friends are the rodents in the house whom she talks to. One day she’s on an errand when she bumps into handsome Prince Kit (Richard Madden). They don’t know who the other person is, but there’s an immediate spark between the two. When he is forced by the ailing King (Derek Jacobi) to find a wife, the Prince decides to hold a ball for all the fair ladies in the land. Hoping to meet her handsome Prince once again, Ella is distraught when Lady Tremaine refuses her request to go, whilst her horrid stepsisters ruin Ella’s dress that she had made herself. However, a visit from her Fairy Godmother (Helena Bonham-Carter) allows Cinderella to attend the ball. Will she land her handsome Prince? Or will the machinations of Lady Tremaine and the equally scheming Grand Duke (Stellan Skarsgaard, strangely channelling Colin Firth gone to seed) spoil the romance?

 

Gorgeous-looking, but somewhat disappointing 2015 version of the popular fairy tale from director Kenneth Branagh (“Hamlet”, “Dead Again”, “Thor”). Scripted by Chris Weitz (director of “About a Boy” and the underrated fantasy flop “The Golden Compass”), it doesn’t quite go as far in feminist reinvention as “Maleficent”, but the same basic problem of a villainess you don’t end up hating is there, albeit in a different way here. In “Maleficent” the evil witch was made out to be the heroine, villainess, love interest, and even at one point comic relief to the detriment of the basic mechanics of the story. It was all so wishy-washy and all over the shop, and being that Maleficent was the main character, it threw the whole thing out of whack. Here, the wicked stepmother played by Cate Blanchett is not the main character thankfully and is clearly the villain of the piece (albeit motivated by identifiable jealousy, financial desperation, and to an extent, vanity), but she is a weak villainess and throws the basic mechanics of the story somewhat askew.

 

In both script and surprisingly half-hearted performance by the normally spot-on Blanchett, the stepmother is woefully uninteresting and terribly low-key for a villainess. I always thought Cate Blanchett should’ve played the Fairy Godmother and Helena Bonham-Carter the stepmother, but even as is I assumed both would still give fine performances. One of them does, the other is Cate Blanchett. I’m shocked too. The only thing I liked about Blanchett’s performance was her dry reading of ‘Do shut up!’ to one of her ugly daughters’ terrible singing. Otherwise, she really gets nothing to chew on here and doesn’t seem to be terribly fussed even trying. Worse, they’ve made the character too silly and comical. She’s a toothless threat and no fun to hate at all. It’s interesting that they’ve dressed her like a 40s femme fatale, because neither in the script nor in Blanchett’s performance does the character otherwise give off Bette Davis vibes. Hell, I would’ve settled for Joan Crawford or Gloria Grahame. I honestly can’t work out why Blanchett signed on for a retelling that gives her so little to chew on as an actress. Much better are the perfect and hilarious Sophie McShera and Holliday Grainger as the ugly stepsisters. Sure, they’re not exactly ugly (at all, really) in appearance, but they’re perfectly horrid in personality, which is the main thing. Did I mention that they’re hilarious? Well they are.

 

The film starts off pretty well. There’s a really lovely version of the Disney logo, and we even get a beefing up of the prologue for Cinderella’s father, played rather well by Ben Chaplin. It doesn’t really humanise the Stepmother, as I think the character remains muted and underwhelming, but I always felt the Disney animated version was just a tad too light on story, so I was glad to see a more extended prologue here. Helena Bonham-Carter does a good job narrating the film, and whatever I may think of Blanchett and her character, she does at least get a memorable entrance. Hell, even the CGI rodents didn’t bother me, and I wasn’t the biggest fan of the animals in the animated version to be honest (They make Cinderella seem pathetic and a bit psychologically unstable if you ask me).

 

The look of the film is clearly the highlight. This is what can only be described as the perfect live-action visual representation of an animated or (if you go back further than the 1950 film) fairy tale story without looking artificial. It looks like a cross between a children’s book and a lush, technicolour Douglas Sirk melodrama. It’s a work of art, at least on a surface level. In terms of story, it’s relatively faithful to the original tale so far as I can recall it (My memories of the story admittedly come from the truncated but enjoyable Disney animated version, which is based on Charles Perrault’s version of the tale as is this one, rather than the Brothers Grimm’s version). I don’t seem to recall a superfluous painter/artist character, but in the role, Rob Brydon is at his scene-stealing best, if admittedly entirely unnecessary to the story. For the most part Branagh and Weitz are to be commended for stretching this to 100 minutes or so, as the basic tale is fairly simplistic. They manage to do it without any real lulls. For all its flaws, the film is definitely not boring. However, one of the changes here that doesn’t work for me is opening things up so that Cinderella manages to get out of the house. It doesn’t really work, diminishes her character’s plight, and it also makes her initial meeting with The Prince seem too much like a scene from “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs”. They meet far too early this time and to no good effect for mine. Other than that and the downplaying of the stepmother, it’s a pretty straight, if more detailed re-telling though.

 

Helena Bonham-Carter is as good as you’d expect as the Fairy Godmother. Playing the character as a bit cracked, she’s the acting highlight of the film along with veteran Derek Jacobi as the dying king. Less effective are lead actress Lily James and “Game of Thrones” actor Richard Madden, who amusingly plays a prince named Kit (“Game of Thrones” fans will get it). They don’t have the best roles to play with here, as they’re very traditional, one-dimensional roles, but neither terribly distinguishes themselves, with Madden coming out slightly better than the forgettable James. The characters really are the only major issue I have with Weitz’s script (and it’s true of most versions, let’s face it), the story is mostly as it has always been, aside from that one blunder with Cinderella getting out of the house. However, to get back to the visuals, the golden carriage is bloody marvellous-looking, and the glass slippers are great too, even if I think the idea of glass slippers is stupid. Think about the normal issues associated with fancy women’s shoes and then add glass to the equation. Major ouchy waiting to happen right there. I also liked the visual representation of the carriage etc. returning to their natural state. It’s wacky without being grotesque.

 

A gorgeous-looking, relatively straight retelling of a classic that is hampered by a lack of a strong villainess. A wan heroine and fairly ordinary male love interest don’t help either, but there’s still enough here to make it watchable, if very disappointing. If you do see the film, stay for the end credits to hear Helena Bonham-Carter offer up a rendition of ‘Bippity Boppity Boo’. She’s not much of a singer, but it’s a fun version nonetheless.

 

Rating: C+