My Movie Review on Cinderella (2015)
What’s up, everyone?
Your friendly movie and tv show reporter is here once again.
And today, following my previous review, I will be making an analysis on Disney’s “Cinderella (2015)”.
Here’s the summary of this live-action retelling of the Disney classic:
Ella (played by Lily James) is a girl with a pure heart, who has lived with her wealthy mother (played by Hayley Atwell) and father (played by Ben Chaplin) since she was a child.
However, after Ella’s mother passes away from an illness, her father goes on to marry the beautiful but secretly cruel Lady Tremaine (played by Cate Blanchett), who is also the mother of two daughters, Anastasia (played by Holliday Grainger) and Drisella (played by Sophie McShera).
As if living with her cruel stepfamily isn’t painful enough for Ella, things take a turn for the worse when her father dies while away on business. With her father gone, Tremaine and her daughters turn Ella into a slave and dub her ‘Cinderella’ (a reason for which you’ll find out if you see this film).
Her time of constant distress, however, suddenly changes when she encounters the Prince (played by Richard Madden), who is out with a hunting party.
Determined to see her again, the Prince convinces his father, the King (played by Derek Jacobi), to open the upcoming royal ball to the commoners and not just the nobility and fellow royals.
The whole thing actually brings up one important question, though:
Are Ella and the Prince truly meant to be together? Will their newfound love for one another even work?
I will admit that this was a film I had very low expectations for and didn’t have complete interest in. However, when I went on to see it, I was taken completely by surprise.
The story and screenplay by Chris Weitz, and the direction by Kenneth Branagh, were surprisingly clever. In many ways, the two of them were able to make the film faithful to the original animated classic. But...the most intriguing part about this film was that they also made it something of their own. In this case, they extended themselves creatively and got their hands dirty in making sure this would be something fun to see and not be some carbon copy of the original, unlike Bill Condon’s live-action “Beauty and the Beast” film which did little to be something worth anyone’s time.
Examples that I can’t help but note and admire are these:
Cinderella’s life with her mother and father is explored.
The first meeting between Ella and her new stepfamily is shown.
and...
Prince Kit and Ella are given much more interaction and chemistry between each other than in the animated film.
I would additionally like to say that even though this isn’t a comedy, it has some very funny scenes! Branagh and Weitz have an excellent sense of humor and they proved that with this film!
The music by Patrick Doyle is likewise something I can’t help but commend. It isn’t a musical, but Doyle’s scoring holds enough power and emotion to stand tall. It fits the time period and country the story takes place in quite well.
As a plus, the acting, casting, characters, and character development were all pretty well-done.
Cate Blanchett, for instance, was absolutely perfect for the role of Lady Tremaine. She gave her character such style with her performance, igniting a classic-villain feel while also giving her a sense of dimensionalism. In addition, she had the best lines in the film among others. I think Eleanor Audley (the voice of Tremaine in the animated film by Disney) would definitely be proud of Blanchett for her performance here.
Lily James and Richard Madden fit the parts of Ella and Prince Kit like a glove. I loved how the two of them were able to give personality to their characters, projecting such realistic emotions and feeling. I also admired the larger focus and character development that Ella and Kit were given in contrast to the animated film. There isn’t really anything wrong with their characters in the animated film, I’m just saying that this version apparently did something that the former didn’t do before.
Likewise, Helena Bonham Carter literally brought the house down with her performance as Ella’s fairy godmother. She was able to make the character something that was entirely her own, even giving some surprisingly hilarious comedic chops and moments. Her narration throughout the film is also what I’d like to call pretty heartwarming.
Now, if I have to single out one problem and flaw in regards to this film, it would be the incorporation of people of certain ethnicity. For instance, the Captain of the Royal Guard (played by Nonso Anozie) was African. There were also some background and minor characters played by Africans, as well as some Asians too.
I’m not being racist or anything, I actually really admire how diverse Disney often is with its casting. And, I thought that Anozie’s performance as the Captain was fun every step of the way.
However, if I recall my research on history correctly, Africans didn’t obtain equal citizenship throughout the globe until after the American Civil War ended, which was in the 1860s.
And, correct me if I’m wrong, but Asians didn’t start becoming prevalent around the world until the late 17 or 1800s, when countries were becoming much more advanced.
The film itself takes place in the 1600s, which was long before any of the times I mentioned. So, all in all, while I do like how inclusive Disney is when casting people who are of certain ethnicity, I felt that the casting of Asians and Africans in this film, as well as the roles they played, was really...too unnecessary. It additionally made things seem too historically inaccurate. If anyone asks, I did a look back on history to be absolutely sure.
In conclusion, however, this live-action reimagining of “Cinderella” is actually what I’d happily call one of the best of Disney’s remakes. All thanks to the amazing creativity of Branagh and Weitz, the awesome performances from its ensemble cast, and so much more! And hey, my critical noting of the film’s unnecessary casting of African-Americans and Asians isn’t going to affect the star ratings in any way. It’s just something I wanted to point out so that people can realize there’s such a thing as being inclusive at the wrong time.
So, I rate “Cinderella (2015)” a complete five out of five stars.
