[Movie Review] Cinderella (2015)

Posted on March 13, 2015 by thegrandshuckett in Movie Reviews // 0 Comments

Director: Kenneth Branagh

Writer: Chris Weitz

Runtime: 112 min

Main Cast:

Lily James as Cinderella
Haley Atwell as Cinderella's Mother
Helena Bonham Carter as Fairy Godmother
Richard Madden as Prince Charming
Cate Blanchett as Lady Tremaine

Guest Review: by Erika T

This age old tale gets a live action remake! Cinderella is my favorite old school Disney film. Though Sleeping Beauty is not far behind, this is my #1. So I was very excited to learn they would be giving this the Maleficent treatment.

After the untimely passing of her father, Ella (played by Lily James) is left in the care of her cruel stepmother (played by Cate Blanchett) and stepsisters who treat her like nothing more than a maid. She remains a hopeful and good-natured person in spite of this. After an open invitation to the royal palace, Ella looks forward to meeting a handsome stranger (played by Richard Madden) whom she recently met in the woods. He just so happens to live in the palace, but she has no idea she was in the presence of royalty. Her stepmother and sisters ruin her chances to attend the ball, but armed with her magical wand her fairy godmother has other plans.

What I Liked:

It keeps to the spirit of the original animated version extremely well and offers improvements. One of those improvements would be evil stepmother’s wardrobe. Cate Blanchette’s outfits slayed. She was so stylish and her character could seamlessly fit into one of my favorite films, The Devil Wear’s Prada. She played the role very well. Her eyes were so intense at times and you effectively loved to hate her. She was probably my favorite character of the movie doing the best job of the cast to bring her role to life. It’s one of those roles where it could be too over the top and campy, but she managed to prevent that.

The scenery and costumes were breathtaking and the colors were beautiful. I’m a sucker for that kind of thing and it provides plenty eye candy in that regard.

And speaking of eye candy, Richard Madden is dashing as ever as the Prince. It was a little hard for me to shake that he is Rob Stark all cleaned up. I also enjoyed Lily James’s portrayal as Cinderella. She has been getting a lot of flack regarding her tiny waist but I honestly didn’t find it distracting. I just figured they had her in a corset and considering that this is an adaptation of a cartoon I didn’t mind them exaggerating it slightly.

What I Didn’t Like:

While I liked that this film maintained the spirit of the original, that meant that the romance between Cinderella and the Prince developed shallowly. Ever After with Drew Barrymore is one of my favorite films and it’s a looser interpretation of the tale. One aspect I enjoyed in that film was that they did a good job at fleshing out the relationship between her character and the Prince. It’s still the best job I’ve seen to date actually.

I was hoping they’d recreate the soundtrack of the original. I was a little let down that they didn’t, at least when it came to the more signature songs.

Going back to the subject of the Prince. Though he was handsome, his personality for me felt a little flat. Perhaps it’s just the nature of the character, but I think of my other favorite Disney Princes come to life like James Mardsen in Enchanted and Chris Pine in Into the Woods who plays Madden’s character. He’s a warped version mind you, and bit less charming when you learn of his true intentions, but he was interesting and refreshing in his own way and Pine pulled out a memorable performance among a stacked cast.

Summary

It’s feel good film and I would say I enjoyed it more than Maleficent if you’re going to group these together. I’m not sure if I enjoyed it as much as Into the Woods but the Cinderella fangirl in me feels like I probably need to buy this on Blu-ray. Next up is my favorite of the 90s generation, Beauty and the Beast starring Emma Watson. I’m crossing my fingers that they’ll sing the songs this time. In the meantime, I have been thorough entertained by the rap battle between Cinderella and Belle.

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