Cinderella

Starring: Lily James, Cate Blanchett, Richard Madden, Helena Bonham Carter, Stellan Skarsgard, Hayley Atwell, Ben Chaplin, Nonso Anozie, Sophie McShera, Holliday Grainger, Derek Jacobi, Rob Brydon
Directed by: Kenneth Branagh
Rating: PG
Genre: Drama, Fantasy
2015

Times Seen:
Tim: 1

Summary: Ella (Lily James) struggles with her stepmother (Cate Blanchett) after her father unexpectedly passes away. When the prince (Richard Madden) invites everyone to a ball, she dreams of attending.

Review:

Tim: So, I totally get what Disney is doing. It makes a lot of financial sense. Let's take all of our old animated fairy tale films and do live action remakes! It's leveraging built-in brands with familiar stories, yet shows them in a way audiences haven't seen before. It's a box office bonanza because audiences keep flocking to these films. The problem is that up to this point, they really haven't made a legitimately good film doing this. There has been decent ones, but no truly strong films. With Cinderella, that trend unfortunately continues. This is actually one of the stronger live action fairy tale remakes, but I can't quite call this a victory.

Kenneth Branagh actually does do a pretty good job directing this movie. In fact, if this was the first Cinderella movie we'd seen, I would have liked it a lot better. The problem is that this film feels far too much like an uninspired remake. There's nothing new here. Branagh and everyone involved simply takes the animated film and translates it into live action. I get why they'd do this- why fix something that isn't broken? The problem is that we've already seen this movie before. This was an opportunity to tell the famous Cinderella story in a new way or with an interesting twist. Instead, we get the same straight forward story we already know. It's hard for me to get excited about watching a live action film that's basically the same thing as an animated one. It just feels redundant a bit pointless.

So, that's my biggest complaint about Cinderella- that the movie never tries to prove it should exist. Anyway, let's look at the cast. I thought Lily James did a good job in the lead role. It could have been totally forgettable, but she was effective and enjoyable in the part. Cate Blanchett felt like an odd casting choice- I'm not sure how challenging this role was. Still, she's an accomplished actress and she brings her talent and expertise to the part. The movie is better as a result of her being in it. Richard Madden was fine as the Prince. I like him because of "Game of Thrones", so it was fun seeing him here. There was something a little odd about his performance, though. It's hard for me to put my finger on it, but I just didn't love him in the part. I always like seeing Stellan Skarsgard, even though his role was mostly thankless and pointless. Helena Bonham Carter was a bit of stunt casting as the fairy godmother (she has almost no screen time). There's something about Carter I just cannot stand, so I wasn't a fan of her performance here. It was fun seeing Hayley Atwell and Ben Chaplin as Ella's parents, although their roles are obviously fairly small. As a whole, this is one of the stronger casts for these Disney fair tale live action remakes.

I can't say I have a ton of complaints about Branagh's film. It tells the story we all expect, but at least it moves at a decent pace. Some of the special effects are quite good- the blue dress looks great in live action, for example. The transformation of the pumpkin, mice, and lizards is fun to watch. Branagh directs a decent film, but it wasn't especially compelling and it didn't convince me that this was a story worth retelling. Those are my big complaints about this film.

I understand I'm not the primary demographic here, but I still could have enjoyed this film. Disney is so intent on remaking their animated classics, but here's the biggest problem- those movies were all classics because they somehow managed to capture real magic in their fairy tale stories. Thus far, these remakes have told the stories, but they've been oddly devoid of magic. That's why these are decent but not especially good films.

Rating 1-10
Tim's Rating: 6.5



If You Enjoyed This Movie, We Recommend: Into the Woods, Maleficent, Oz the Great and Powerful, Alice in Wonderland, Cinderella (1950)