Movie Review: Cinderella

Cinderella (2015)

Four Stars out of Five

PG

Cate Blanchet: Lady Tremaine, Step-mother

Lily James: Cinderella

Richard Madden: The Prince

Helena Bonham Carter: Fairy Godmother

Director: Kenneth Branagh

Writer: Chris Weitz

Cinematography Director:  Haris Zambarloukos

Art Direction: Gary Freeman and Leslie Tomkins

Costume: Sandy Powell

For most Americans and perhaps for most of the contemporary world, the story of Cinderella is likely best known by Disney’s 1950 animated classic, “Cinderella”. Cinderella’s story is however actually a mythic archetype with hundreds of films, plays and ballets that depict the theme of unjust persecution and/or someone suddenly achieving recognition. The earliest known version of this story goes back to the 7^th century BC and the tale of a Greek slave girl (Rhodopsis) who eventually marries an Egyptian pharaoh. Her story first appeared as a written version in 1634 as told by the Italian folklorist Giambattista Bastile. Charles Perrault wrote the French version in 1697 and the Brothers Grim wrote a characteristically grim version in German in 1812. In 2015 Disney has released a marvelous new live action movie based to a great extent on the Perrault version. Director Kenneth Branagh has worked with writer Chris Weitz to craft a story that abandons the simplistic romantic and cartoon elements of barnyard creatures and anthropomorphic mice of the 1950’s Disney movie for a story that leans heavily on many of the mythic elements of a persecuted heroine, and to do it in a style that emphasizes steadfastness and grace in contrast to the more typical early 21^st century archetype of female heroines as warrior maidens.

Disney’s new Cinderella begins with the ten year old Ella (Eloise Webb) living an idyllic life with her loving mother (Hayley Atwell) and endlessly travelling, merchant father (Ben Chaplin). Making use of the time-hallowed Disney trope of parental death, the now grown and newly orphaned Ella (Lily James) falls under the control of her malevolent step-mother, Lady Tremaine (Cate Blanchett). These early sequences were with few exceptions the weakest part of the movie. The story seems to rush to the inevitable situation where Ella, formerly middle classed-wealthy and loved, is now forced into her scullion role as Cinderella by Lady Tremaine and her two vacuous daughters, Drisella (Sophie McShera – like Lily James, a Downton Abbey alumnus) and Anastasia (Holiday Grainger). The movie’s deepest flaw shows up in this first reel. It isn’t the weak acting during Ella’s mother’s death scene, or the endlessly used (by Disney) parental deaths, but instead it is the mother’s dying advice to Ella: “Have courage, and be kind”. That such advice goes far to explain Cinderella’s later tolerance for her step-family’s evil and that it may be easily digested and not necessarily bad advice to a six year old (Disney’s target audience?), it is a missed opportunity for the movie to get to the heart of the Cinderella story: courage, yes; but more to the point than kindness, tolerance and reconciliation as a form of grace – harder concepts to explain, but worthy of the effort.

Gorgeously dressed in her signature green, her face in shadows, Blanchett first appears as Lady Tremaine. She gracefully enters Ella’s home in a scene that is a highlight of the movie's first reel. However, the movie really starts to come alive when Ella now Cinderella meets the Prince (Richard Madden) for the first time. She is riding in the forest while he is hunting with his men. They circle one another, talking, learning about each other. She tries to convince him to drop the hunt; he tries to find out who she is. The scene is charming and works very well due to the actors’ acting and Branagh’s staging. It is a classic “meet cute”, but it works so well, I found it to be the best scene in the movie. During the remainder of the second and third reels, the movie follows roughly the Perrault version of the story. The King (Derek Jacobi) wants his son to marry, and so the son agrees to a ball wherein he will find a princess to marry. The Tremaine’s seek to prevent Cinderella’s attendance, but via the intervention of her fairy god-mother (Helena Bonham Carter), Cinderella obtains a beautiful blue dress, a comically-created pumpkin coach and various animal-cum-coachman/footmen assistants. She arrives at the ball, does a little dancing and falling in love, escapes with one shoe, and is ultimately found again and married to the Prince. Several key dramatic elements during this montage include Cinderella’s confrontation with Lady Tremaine, where she learns source of Lady Tremaine’s pain and thus, her evil. And even more significantly, we see at the end of the movie, Ella’s embrace of her new name of Cinderella and her “pardon” of the two step-sisters.

There are technical elements to the movie that make seeing the movie worth the effort all on their own: scenery, art and costume design, sound and direction. They are all Oscar-worthy efforts. Consider Blanchett’s and Cinderella’s dress design. Lady Tremaine’s are so beautiful, she could be mistaken as a heroine herself, except for that pesky envious color of green. James’ blue gown for the ball and her white one for the wedding really have to be seen to be believed. (Odd topics for a guy like me to comment on, but they really are spectacular costumes.) The art design for the exterior shots of the castle and the cinematography of the interior shots during the ball are profoundly good. All of these non-dramatic, artistic elements are significant additions to the movie.

With respect to the thrust of the myth and that of the movie there is a delicate balance for any writer and director. The mythic elements, those parts that make this story timeless and accessible across the world must be in the movie and easily accessed by the viewer. Yet, the movie must be current in order to be a commercial success. This movie largely does both. This Cinderella does accept her reduced condition under Lady Tremaine, she maintains her tolerance of Lady Tremaine’s ruined heart, and she does demand an explanation from Lady Tremaine. But significantly she also keeps to her dreams, breaking down only when all seems lost. That she loves the Prince, and he loves her cannot be in question, and as such, this telling of the Cinderella story stays true to the ideals of a heroine who is unjustly persecuted, achieves her unforeseen success and who has a heart big enough, one kind enough to reconcile with her tormentors.

A good story, one for the ages; and still in the words of Perrault: “beauty is a treasure, but graciousness is priceless”. And to paraphrase his final comments on the moral of the story: “It’s pretty convenient to have a magical, fairy godmother, too.”