CINDERELLA
Cate Blanchett as Lady Tremaine / Lily James as Cinderella / Holliday Grainger as Anastasia / Sophie McShera as Drizella / Stellan Skarsgård as Grand Duke / / Helena Bonham-Carter as Fairy Godmother / Richard Madden as Prince "Kit" Charming / Hayley Atwell as Cinderella's Mother / Nonso Anozie as Captain / Derek Jacobi as The King / Ben Chaplin as Cinderella's Father Directed by Kenneth Branagh / Written by Aline Brosh McKenna and Chris Weitz |
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Outside of perpetuating an established brand and box office returns, I can’t think of anything more redundant and wasteful than adapting animated films to live action. CINDERELLA was
already made into an iconic and magical 1951 animated Disney film that has
long stood the test of time, so the thought of needlessly updating and/or
retrofitting this fairy tale classic seems financially motivated at best.
Yet, this marks the third time that Disney has decided to partake
in live action reworkings of their animated empire and considering the mixed
results of the previous two (first came the 2010’s wrongheaded ALICE
IN WONDERLAND followed by last year’s equally problematic MALEFICENT)
I went into CINDERELLA with a deeply suspicious and negative mindset. Good news,
though, because Disney tapped a seasoned directing pro in the likes of
Kenneth Branagh, whom has demonstrated a remarkable range as a filmmaker
lately (from his decent JACK
RYAN reboot to dabbling in comic book mythology in THOR…not
to mention his many dalliances with Shakespeare) and he seems more than
equal to the challenge of adapting a story that has such widespread and
universal familiarity with audiences.
Rather thankfully – and perhaps most refreshingly – Branagh and
screenwriter Chris Weitz have fully embraced the 1950’s animated film in
a mostly traditional and vibrantly old-fashioned approach.
No attempt is really made to contemporize the story or make it
bleaker, darker, and more grounded and gritty.
No, Branagh and company have created an unendingly lush, opulent,
and colourful big screen canvas to place their adaptation on, and one that
sort of feels like a sprawling big budget studio picture made in the era
that the animated classic was released in.
Yeah, there are no surprises at all in this CINDERELLA, but it’s
so handsomely mounted that you’re willing to overlook that. CINDERELLA begins
with a prologue that shows how a young girl named Ella (Eloise Webb and
later Lily James) managed to be placed under the “care” of her vile
stepmother Lady Tremaine (Cate Blanchett) and her two
fingernails-on-a-chalkboard insufferable stepsisters, Drizella (Sophie
McShera) and Anastasia (Holliday Grainger).
During her fist ten years Ella lived a wondrous existence with her
mother (Hayley Atwell) and father (Ben Chaplin); they were loving and
nurturing parents in every way shape and form.
Ella’s mother was taken from her at an early age due to disease
and her father, somewhat reluctantly, eventually decided to remarry,
forming a union with Tremaine. Of
course, it’s of no surprise here that Ella becomes an orphan when her
last biological parent dies, leaving her in the custody – more like
indentured servitude – of Tremaine.
Her stepsisters treat her no better, nicknaming her
“Cinder-Ella” because of the way her face looks after sleeping too
close on the floor to the fireplace on a nightly basis.
Ella takes some
solace, though, during her chance meeting with a dashing prince (Richard
Madden), who’s actually pretending to be an “apprentice” when he
locks eyes with Ella, who in turn provides no details to him as to her
true living situation and standing in life.
Of course, both are helplessly taking in with each other, but the
prince is facing his own personal struggles as well, specifically in the
form of a dying king father (Derek Jacobi) and a conniving Grand Duke (Stellan
Skarsgaard). Both men want
the prince to take a bride and marry for political convenience to continue
the family lineage, but the prince just wants love.
The crown decides to hold a lavish ball to assist the prince in
making his decision. Hmmmm…I
wonder if he and Ella will have a chance meeting there?
If only, say, a fairy godmother will sprinkle some magic on
Ella’s hellish life and give her the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to
attend? Sarcasm aside,
virtually nothing in CINDERELLA strays away from the established canon of
the animated film (SPOILER ALERT: the glass shoe fits the titular
character in the end). Alas,
it’s the journey that Branagh takes you on that’s most rewarding while
harnessing to and upholding the central strengths of the source material.
CINDERELLA is one of the most sumptuous looking films that I’ve
seen in an awfully long time; it looks like a living, breathing storybook
come lovingly to life. Multiple Oscar winner Sandy Powell envisions ornately
stunning costumes and Dante Ferretti’s production design – bathing the
screen in a positively orgasmic collage of vivacious color and natural
bucolic pleasures – makes CINDERELLA and absolute visual triumph on
multiple levels. When we do
indeed get to the inevitable ball the film just reaches an apex of
aesthetic confidence that one frankly doesn’t witness on the screen in
abundance anymore. Even though
Branagh has wisely chosen not to overtly tamper with the character
relationships, he still embodies in many of them with more soul and
compassion than what I was expecting.
Newcomer Lily James has a porcelain beauty that makes her a perfect
physical embodiment of Cinderella, but she has a very thorny task of
giving her character a sense of low-key pathos and desperation while, at
the same time, embodying in her a figure of determination and spirit to
change her station in life. She’s
well-paired with Madden’s prince, who’s more fleshed out beyond his façade
of an obligatory handsome and debonair royal figure.
The film finds a psychological motivation towards Ella and the
prince forming a union: Yes, they do love each other, but their coming
together is also built on healing mutual pain on the home front.
Considering the forced and strained chemistry that could have been
elicited here, the fact that Madden and James have an emotional
authenticity on screen together is deeply commendable. The most intriguing character in Branagh’s CINDERELLA, though, is Blanchett’s wicked stepmother, a character that could have been delegated down to a one-note caricature as a sniveling protagonist. Blanchett has some sly tricks up her sleeve here, showing Tremaine as a woman that’s capable of perpetrating social horrors, to be sure, but in small part seems to have a kernel of motivation based on past trauma for her evil ways. CINDERELLA does not go out of its way to portray Tremaine in a sympathetic light, but it compellingly puts forward a notion that her vindictiveness towards people may have a motive in its own regard. Blanchett manages to achieve the impossible of neither hamming it up to egregious levels nor being too understated and introverted. We certainly want to see this woman defeated in the end, but throughout CINDERELLA there’s an attempt made to get audiences to understand why commits heinous acts. CINDERELLA is
awash in euphoric nostalgia and admiration for the original animated film.
It retains its magical trappings while adhering to its noble minded
themes of family loss, inner resiliency, and becoming independent and
self-actualized apart from demeaning forces.
Sure, Branagh doesn’t tinker with the 1951 film too much, which
is probably a good thing. In
a relative day and age of dreary cinematic cynicism, it’s kind of nice
to see a film like CINDERELLA approach its story with a sweetness,
compassion, and feel-good optimism. Yet,
the film creates a very strange conundrum for the film critic: Does it
need to be seen? Not
especially, considering the animated film that preceded it.
However, did I enjoy seeing it as a painstakingly and wondrously
crafted live action fairy tale? Yes.
That, and Branagh has a few…shall we say…fairy godmother
tricks up his directorial sleeve to make this CINDERELLA stand out apart
from our shared overt acquaintance with the material.
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