Review of Cinderella (2015) by Wornoutspines — 13 Apr 2015

At first, I was not necessarily convinced that a Cinderella live action film would be interesting but Kenneth Branagh at the director's chair & Cate Blanchett as the stepmother made me rethink my position. The project became less of a silly little film with these two on board.

Cinderella was a beautiful film, very tasteful, colorful, touching and classy. It's a very different Cinderella but it had the spirit of the animated film. The stepmother, Cinderella herself, and the prince were different, they had more substance, they multidimensional and that’s mostly true for the stepmother and the prince. They are not filling up space, they were more than just window dressing the Cinderella show. The stepmother made more sense, you could actually understand how she came to be that b*tch in Ella’s life. The prince is no longer a pretty boy whose name no one bothers to mention, he’s a character with hopes and dreams, and sliver of personality to make him interesting. They even played off the fact that a girl confined to the attic, who likes talking to animals is a bit weird - cute weird but weird still -, which made the movie feel real while managing to keep the magic and the wonder intact.

The ensemble cast really elevated the film, they embodied the characters we came to know and love but portrayed them in quite a unique way.