Cinderella (2015) Review

Director: Kenneth Branagh

Starring: Lily James, Cate Blanchett, and Richard Madden

Original release date: March 13th 2015

I guess because it’s a new decade we need another retelling of Cinderella. I'm pretty sure there has been at least three different versions of this story in the last ten years, from modern-day retellings to musicals. If it’s a popular fairy tale that teaches women that if they find a nice rich guy and if they’re pretty that all of their dreams will come true; you can bet that you’ll see that story rehashed. Cinderella has been clouding the minds of girls for years. We honestly just had a Cinderella movie last year, one of the main plots from Into the Woods was Cinderella (played by Anna Kendrick). However I don’t think that there has ever been a live action version of the classic Disney film from the 50’s. Disney seems to be on a  live action kick, we've had last summers Maleficent and now we got a Peter Pan and Jungle Book movie in the works. Now sure I might sound a tiny bit cynical, but since I'm watching the first season of Agents of Shield I don’t have anything to review so I thought what the hell. I always liked the 1950’s movie as a kid, but do I really need to see the same story told to me again for the umpteenth time? It all rests on Kenneth Branagh, did he make a movie that just simply goes through the checklist of story points from the animated classic, or offer up something new to the table to a story that has been beaten more times than I can think of.

By now you probably already know the story of Cinderella, but for the sake of this review I’ll detail the plot. Cinderella tells the story of young Ella, a beautiful young girl who always sees the best in everything and everyone. After the death of her mother Ella’s father marries the Lady Tremaine, who comes sweeping in with her two daughters to live with the widowed family. When Ella’s father dies during a business trip Lady Tremaine quickly takes control of the household and reduces Ella to a slave. Ella’s life seems hopeless, but when she has a chance encounter with the Prince of the realm she learns that there might be a chance for her to escape the evil grasp of her stepmother and find true love and happiness.

I really wasn't expecting much when I saw this movie. Not that it didn't look interesting it’s just I've seen this story more times than I can count, the real question was; could I sit through a 2 hour retelling of a 74 minute animated children's flick. Thankfully this new rendition of Cinderella is a really solid movie. Kenneth Branagh just has a knack for the big grandiose period pieces. As I've stated in my Thor Review  that Branagh’s Shakespearean training really helps the director to craft a fantastic film. Cinderella is a gorgeous looking movie, from cinematography, set design and costumes this movie is vibrant and alive. I wouldn't be surprised if Cinderella is nominated for one of these categories during next year's Oscars. Be it a Marvel epic, Shakespearean tragedy or Mary Shelley’s classic horror tale all of Branagh’s period pieces are amazing to watch, I was in awe of the film and I am very happy that the films crew were able to create a very believable fantasy setting. My only complain (and it’s a nitpick at that) was that the Prince’s castle wasn't the Cinderella castle from the animated film and Disney's parks, the building itself is Disney’s trademark it would have been really awesome to see the iconic palace on the big screen.

Now I've never watched Downton Abbey so I had no idea who Lily James was, but my god is she great. She was absolutely superb as the title character. James was able to find the perfect medium between the aloof nature of Cinderella and the sincere qualities that one expects to find from a Disney princess. I really hope she gets more work because I couldn't take my eyes of the screen, if the character of Cinderella failed to deliver on screen the entire movie would have fallen apart.

Cate Blanchett plays our villain, the horrible Lady Tremaine. You can tell Blanchett was having the time of her life in this movie. Her performance just oozes with evil, some might find her performance a bit over the top but I think it was a really good contrast with Lily James's subdue performance. Even Tremaine’s daughters were a bit goofy but I think that was the point, you’re not supposed to like these characters or find them interesting, they are annoying, spoiled brats who are abusing a poor naive girl into servitude. The film does try to give a little reasoning behind Tremaine’s hatred towards Ella but I personally found that to be flat. We don’t always need a reasoning behind why someone is a bad person, sometimes people are just plain nasty and evil.

Now I don’t know about you but Richard Madden was quite, umm, charming as the Prince. A complete flip from his character in Game of Thrones, Madden and Lily had this amazing chemistry that just seeped out of the screen and infected me. That man has quite the smile, I found myself fawning over the man like a child with a crush.

We also have Helena Bonham Carter as the Fairy Godmother, Stellan Skarsgard as the Duke, Derek Jacobi as the king (who actually has a legitimate reason for wanting his son to marry) and Hayley Atwell as Ella’s mother. Now Helena Bonham Carter is a great actor and I like her a lot however I found her performance to be unsettling for some reason. Perhaps it’s because I'm used to her being,well, herself. Something about the Fairy Godmother gave me the willies and I can’t really explain it, her big eyes and big teeth just disturbed me.

I really enjoyed the added back story to Ella, I don’t truly recall the reasoning behind why Tremaine moved into Ella’s home; but I haven’t watched the animated movie in years so that’s probably why. The movie’s opening was very heart wrenching, and although she is only on screen for ten minutes Hayley Atwell gives a very memorable performance. I really liked seeing how Ella gained her philosophy and kind nature.

The soundtrack for the movie is also superb, probably because it was conducted by Patrick Doyle, the man who brought the awesome soundtrack to Thor. There’s this magical essence to the music in this movie that helps every scene flow in a very nice way, almost like a dream.

Now this might be a nitpick but I found some bad continuity errors in the script, usually I’d let that fly because no movie is perfect, but these were pretty big plot points that seemed to be changed at a moments notice. Now these might be spoilers but everyone knows the story of Cinderella so I don’t really see how I’ll be spoiling it.

So Ella really wants to go to the ball and Lady Tremaine sends Ella out to get three dresses made for the ball; one for Tremaine herself and the other two for her daughters. Ella decides to make her down dress if she is to go to the ball, when she is revealed to Tremaine before she sets out she tells her that the dress she is wearing belonged to her mother. This wasn't explained at all, the narrator said that Ella made the dress and you even see her making it. Another moment of strange continuity is right after the ball, Ella hides one of her glass slippers in some dirt near the fireplace. The next scene Ella is looking for it under the floorboards of her room in the attic, how did it get there? A second ago it was in some soot not the floor. Sure this might be nitpicking but these are two very important items and moments in the film, I'm surprised no one caught onto this while filming.

I did find myself checking my watch as the film went on, that’s because I've seen Cinderella so many times in hundreds of iterations. There wasn't anything really new that was brought to the plate, now I get that Disney wants to introduce the story to a new generation and that’s fine, but the animated movie still holds up and you can find it anywhere. If I had the option to show Cinderella to someone I would have chosen the animated movie over this, the run time might be a hard hitter for some kids because they can never stay put and might find it boring at times.

Cinderella is a pretty good movie, unfortunately I've seen this story far to many times to count and that really bogged it down for me. But the production value and acting were superb and really saved the movie in the end. I'm happy I went and saw it and I would recommend it to people, but if you’re sick and tired of the story you might want to stay home.

I give the 2015 rendition of Cinderella a

7/10