Cinderella (2015) - Review

I’ve said this before, but I have no love for Cinderella.  It was made at a time when ridiculously simplistic plots (which are somehow still unbelievable – I’ll never know who this girl is by her face... only by this slipper!) was A-OK, but that’s really no longer the case.  No matter how good the new Cinderella remake looks, and it looks damn good, you can’t substitute gorgeous visuals for a lack of interesting story.

First, the good things.  Kenneth Branagh (yes, that one) is a wonderful director, and this is an incredibly well-shot movie.  Everything looks gorgeous (including our two lead actors, man that’s an attractive couple!) and Branagh does his job well.  It’s just too bad that screenwriter Chris Weitz couldn’t put in the same level of effort.  This is a simple retelling of Cinderella.  No frills, no expansion, not much of anything new, really.  If you were wanting the cartoon, except put it in live-action, then you’ll be very pleased.

CGI'd waist or incredibly unhealthy diet?  You be the judge!

There ARE vague attempts to humanize some of the more shallow characters like the Prince and the stepmother, but they are mostly half-hearted, and the weight falls to the actors.  Luckily, the acting is very solid – but the standout goes to Game of Thrones alum Richard Madden.  The guy’s a great actor, and single-handedly carries the most emotional scene in the film (his dad’s death) with subtlety and vulnerability.  It also helps that, despite not sharing the screen with each other for long, he and Lily James have good chemistry together which helps to solidify a relationship that’s tenuous at best.

Unfortunately the movie is mostly just pretty boring.  It’s nice to look at, but there’s not much underneath the spectacle.  To remake something, you really need to put a spin on it, and it seems that the “spin” was simply doing the same movie in live-action, albeit toned down slightly.  I mean, the mice are still anthropomorphic and still basically talk, but don’t literally speak English.  So, slightly.

But these days slightly isn’t good enough.  Don’t remake a film if it’s not going to be different than the original (our buddies Vince Vaughn and Gus Van Sant taught us that).  And I personally don’t think Cinderella is a thing worth retelling.  Especially over.  And over, and over, and over.