Review of After the Ball (2015) by Kelley Z — 04 Jul 2015

After the ball is a classic Cinderella story, Kate beats vicious stepmother and step sisters and saves his father and Kassel(castle) from their ugly scheme with the enemy company, and be united with Daniel happily ever after. And according to the review in IMDb, it also blends the element of Devil in Prada. But I'm sure that classics is not in the writer's mind, because it's just another Cinderella story in the content of fashion world. The actress is right fit for her role except for her wrinkles and her weary smile, and Daniel is a perfect modern prince charming except for his beer belly and his double jaw. Stepmother is too young to be a mother for her two adult girls, and Morris is simply too ostentatious for a gay friend character in a fairytale,especially the moment when he steps up the carpet and presses the start button of the video. Richard and mother are comical, living in a home bursted with fresh colors and girlish things. It is justified because all the surreally princess setting are justified by the fashion background. From a girl's perspective, if the prince is not smart, funny, handsome and responsible, no matter how well developed the story is, how extraordinary the acting of the cast, how pinky sparkly the setting is, the fairytale is not attractive or romantic. Maybe they need the designer in the basement to be convincing, but a handsome guy with good acting can do the job too. I'll give 6 out of 10 for the cast.

The story is fairly elaborated though, worrying that the daughter of a famous family fashion corporation CEO can be a spy is a perfect reason for a talented girl not to find employment elsewhere, which is a reasonable impetus for the girl to find employment in a falling empire and find her place there. And stolen design is indeed the most outrageous tragic that can happen to a designer, being set up by bitches and kicked out of the company and at the same time knowing that daddy's company is harmed by the scheme put Kate in Justice no matter what she does. Then Nate appears, dressing like a funny Hitchcock ill matching her skinny form. The clumsy clothing is fighting awkwardly with the actress's body, makes it uncomfortable to look at. "You're fat" "No I'm not" "Well you have to pretend you're Richard, and Richard if fat" "I'm not, what can I do about it!" I try to be objective in this review, but Nate's appearance is ugly and artificial. Al though this is a fairytale setting, unnatural things only audience can observe is allowed, the look is really a stye in the eye. The point to expose that stepmother is actually a spy is precisely set on the moment when Kate seems to fail the competition. If they are conscious hardworking people who just don't want Kate in the corporation, it will be a long and ugly struggle. And the step sister somehow end up unbelievably stupid when they offer to take Kate to somewhere she can expose their sins only because they believe Kate doesn't want anyone to know she's actually Nate, it's more unacceptable that they believe the pieces of shinny plastics are the fall collections. The lack of fashion in this fashion movie also reveals itself when Kate is asked to show something simple but beautiful and powerful to work in Kassel , she revived her school work to a bunch of fashion tycoons, magically stores are filled with only dresses(no shorts, no jeans, no T-shirts, no coat, just one-piece dresses) with Kate's school work turned into different fabrics and color, and people actually love the dresses without Nicole Kidman representing the brand. And more stunningly, nobody hires a genius like her merely because of ungrounded assumptions made about her last name.

This is a junk food movie. It successfully keeps you at your seats for 3 hours, but you'll regret watching that because it leaves no echo in audience's soul, like it does in Dancers in the Dark or Wolf in Wall Street. The film techniques makes you wander what happens next, but after the story ends you'll be like "That's it? So what?". It's not a lens you want children to see the world through, because although Kate is extremely brave and kind, she doesn't fight back when she should and let fate win the work she should have fought, but It's definitely a good movie to watch when you're too lazy to get off the sofa and you've got a box of popcorns.