Cinderella

2015 fairy tale retelling

Rating: 16/20 (Jennifer: 19/20; Buster: 20/20)

Plot: It's the same plot as the Chinese folk tale "Yeh-Shen" except it doesn't have a talking fish in it.

I was on the edge of my seat near the end of this new Disney Cinderella movie because I was really hoping they'd divert from Charles Perrault's French version, the one that Disney made sure we all knew and loved, and end this like the Grimm's version--with mutilated feet and and avalanche of boulders. Unfortunately, those Disney people are a bunch of pussies and thought mangled heels would have clashed with the pretty imagery of the rest of the movie. No little girls want to see that glass slipper smeared with step-sister blood, I guess.

I just gave this movie a bonus point because it wasn't a musical. It's the kind of thing you don't really appreciate while watching the movie, but when you've had a couple days to think about it, it makes a huge difference.

The acting's fine but far from the star of the show. Lily James plays Cinderella, and she's cute throughout without being breathtakingly so until the point when she's supposed to be. Her bosom? Appropriate. I like that there's a vulnerability with James, and when the character's being "kind," you just believe it. Richard Madden is the Prince, and his teeth are perfect. Unless they're CGI teeth which I guess is a possibility these days. The two step-sisters are good without being overly comical. There are funny moments in the script, but those funny bits aren't obvious. Bonham Carter's weird face makes for a good Fairy Godmother although her voice kind of sounds like a lot of other narrator voices. Best of all--probably expected--is Cate Blanchett as the step-mother. I don't think that's a particularly difficult role to play. It's an easy sort of malicious, but I wouldn't want to underestimate the job Blanchett does with the character. She makes evil fun, and pretty much every line she has, no matter how nice it might seem on paper, feels vicious.

But the real star of the show would be the luscious visuals and colors. This is the type of movie where there's just so much to look at. You kind of want to sit there and absorb it all--every color, every movement of a dress, every shadow in an attic, every part of the architecture, every bit of nature. And that's easy to do since the story is so familiar. You can ignore the narrative and just focus on looking at things. And those things are stunning. I loved Cinderella's house even though Cate Blanchett did not. The castle's interior was as beautiful as you'd expect it to be, and the gardens were just as beautiful. The ball? Well, the amount of colors and the costumes--this has to win awards for costuming--make it a feast, a dance sequence that makes Disney animated dance sequences like the famous Beauty and the Beast one look like bullshit. This isn't an animated movie, but it's exquisitely drawn like it's one. Even the CGI doesn't get in the way. There are numerous shots of a quartet of mice as well as some lizards and a duck, and although it's the kind of thing you'd figure would completely ruin a movie like this, it didn't. The CGI, even at its most preposterous, was convincing. All fairy tales should look as good as this movie.

As I said, you know the story going on. The additions--more of Cinderella's parents in the exposition, some stuff with the king, more meanness after the ball--fit fine, and there are some nods to the original Disney animated classic that are nice touches.

I had reservations about this one, not because I don't think the original is some untouchable sacred cow or anything, but because it just seemed like a tired idea. But this is a tired story so lovingly retold that Disney's come close to matching the original which would put this in the running for the best version of this fairy tale. If only it had those mangled feet!