'Cinderella' is a Sweet, Refreshing Take on the Classic Fairy Tale

Cinderella the character is somewhat controversial. I think a lot of people take issue with her "grin and bear it" approach to life and also the "swept away by Prince Charming" happy ending. Cinderella has often been seen as a passive character, who lets things to happen to her. Critics of the Cinderella tale find issue with how Cinderella fits nicely into expected gender roles.

Because of this, the princess story has gone under some major revisions: Mulan saves the empire, Tiana opens a restaurant, Elsa rules Arandele, Merida unites kingdoms. Rapunzel searches for her sense of self. And with the new trend of remaking/rebooting animated classics, Maleficent and Aurora share a deep bond of mother/daughter affection.

When a new Cinderella movie was announced, I wondered what the new take on Cinderella would be. How would they update the story to fit the trend of the New Disney Princess? Surprisingly and refreshingly, director Kenneth Branagh (Thor, Hamlet) and writer Chris Weitz (About a Boy) have delivered a straightforward telling of Cinderella's story, taking elements from the 1950 Disney animated film and other Cinderella legends.

Starring Lily James, Cate Blanchett, Richard Madden, Derek Jakobi, Stellan Skarsgard, Hayley Atwell, Nonso Anozie and Helena Bonham Carter, Cinderella is a sweet, charming and rather handsome-looking movie. The film was shot by Cypriot cinematographer and Branagh collaborator Hans Zambarloukos. Patrick Doyle, another Branagh favorite, composed the score. The likely Oscar winning (or at least nominated) costumes were by Sandy Powell.

Ella (James) lives an idyllic life after the death of her beloved mother (Atwell). But when her father (Ben Chaplin) marries the Lady Tremaine (Blanchett), Ella is forced to make nice with her stepmother and stepsisters Drisella (Sophie McShera) and Anastasia (Holliday Grainger). Once her father dies, Ella is forced to be the Tremaines' servant girl, banished to the attic. But she remains true to her character, finding comfort in her mother's words: have courage and be kind. Well, she has some help from her Fairy Godmother (Bonham Carter).

You know the story: there's a prince (Richard Madden), a ball, a glass slipper. It's all there. Cinderella doesn't drastically change the outline. Instead, it fleshes out the story (after all, it's a half hour longer than the animated version). The Prince is given a personality, and the film attempts to show that he is just as trapped as Cinderella is. He has relationships with his father and other royalty members. He and Cinderella have chemistry and their courtship, though still brief, feels natural and cute.

Lady Tremaine herself is given some character development. With an actress like Cate Blanchett, you'd expect a nuanced performance but even on the page, I think the character had some meat to it. The film doesn't let her off the hook even as it shows her motivations. Unlike Maleficent in her film, she's an antagonist through and through. But she's not a cardboard cut-out monster. (As usual, the real villain is the oppressive patriarchal order that stifles female independence and empowerment.)

I liked the basic message of this movie: courageousness, kindness, resilience and altruism can have their own rewards. The film shows that there are two ways to handle adversity: you can become angry and bitter or you can show graciousness and try to make the best of your situation. Cinderella here is a well-rounded character in that she does show anger and sadness but those feelings do not define her.

The one thing I didn't care in this movie was the ballroom sequence. I felt like Branagh's direction was a little sloppy. Cinderella's late entrance into the ball felt like it happened on an entirely different planet in that we didn't get to see other people reacting to it. Some murmurings of "who is that?" would have been helped to sell her as a "mystery princess." I didn't get the sense that Cinderella really had any impact at all on the ball except that she and the Prince fall in love. I don't think Cinderella and Lady Tremaine even shared the screen together in that sequence. Joe Wright, who's given us great ballroom scenes in Pride & Prejudice and Anna Karenina, would have been a better director.

Branagh's direction is solid throughout; he wisely doesn't make the film too whimsical. He saves all of the outright magic for the funny and cute Fairy Godmother part. The film is grounded enough that when the actual magic shows up, it feels earned and just on the right side of random. The cinematography is beautiful, and the color palette is used to define characters. I have to say that Patrick Doyle's score could have been more memorable.

Branagh's cast is also pretty fantastic. Lily James, known for her work on Downton Abbey, is magnificent. Like Elle Fanning in Maleficent, she brings life and intelligence to her potentially 2-D character. Blanchett and Bonham-Carter play to their known personas, but they're not coasting either. Their performances are finely tuned to the tone of the film. Richard Madden is fine as the Prince; he has some key scenes that flesh out his character. The actresses playing the stepsisters add some comic relief to the movie; by being more ridiculous than outright cruel, they ease the discomfort of seeing Cinderella tormented.

Fans of the animated movie, Drew Barrymore's Ever After or even that Hilary Duff movie A Cinderella Story might disagree but I think that this 2015 Cinderella might be the best telling of the story. Despite some of its flaws, it is a breezy, charming romantic movie. The film is hugely enjoyable and frankly I'm already squirming to see what it looks like on blu-ray.

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