OVP: Cinderella (2015)

Film: Cinderella (2015)
Stars: Lily James, Cate Blanchett, Richard Madden, Helena Bonham Carter, Stellan Skargard, Derek Jacobi
Director: Kenneth Branagh
Oscar History: 1 nomination (Best Costume Design)
Snap Judgment Ranking: 2/5 stars

First off, I want to apologize for the enormous gap in writing this week-I had a really long week with a number of dear friends getting laid off at my company, and as a result I haven't felt inspired to do much of anything, much less discuss the minutia of past Oscar contests and wondering what the the hell Hillary was thinking with that email account.  However, I am back and we are back to daily posts, and I figured what better way to get back in the groove and lift our spirits than a fairy tale?

(It's one of the most famous stories of all time-why would you need a spoiler alert?) The film takes place in a kingdom far, far away, where a young girl, perfectly coiffed and raised by two indecently kind parents...you know what?  You know the story, there's no need for a recap.  Perhaps the first real problem with Kenneth Branagh's Cinderella may be that it seems wholly unnecessary-the film isn't something like Maleficent, where we're seeing the story from the angle of the Wicked Stepmother nor is it particularly focused on an origin story like the upcoming Pan (does it feel weird to anyone else that there's a Joe Wright film that doesn't star Keira Knightley?) nor is it like one of the recent Snow White remakes, played for either low comedy (Mirror Mirror) or gritty realism (Snow White and the Huntsman)-this is a straight-forward retelling of the Cinderella story, something that we already have in its pristine animated glory from sixty years ago.  In many ways, as a result, this feels more like a cash-in on the Disney Princess craze that has been sweeping the country for the past decade (more than usual, even) and less like something you should actually give part of your paycheck toward.

Not that there aren't nice touches-Cate Blanchett as the Wicked Stepmother is of course the obvious attraction here, complete with nasty laugh and perhaps just enough backstory (her fairly warranted jealousy against her stepdaughter) to give us some context as to why she is so cruel to our heroine.  I love the ways that she tosses away lines, her NIDA-training mixing with a delicious bit of camp, and Sandy Powell as her costume-designer knows how to have fun with this, putting Blanchett in gaudy but totally believable gowns throughout the film, frequently making her seem like some sort of demonic Wallis Simpson-style figure in the film.

No one else can really compare to her, not even Helena Bonham Carter who plays her role exactly how you would expect HBC to tackle such a role (you half expect Johnny Depp to pop up as one of the coachmen during that scene, which is too-close-to-Burton-for-comfort).  At least she has some life in her.  Lily James, on the other hand, is saddled with the most boring of Disney princesses, and the script makes her too focused on being perfect and not on the slightly less-feminist but certainly more compelling (narratively-speaking) "someday my prince will come" aspect of this girl.  The reality is that Cinderella is a story that demands you to believe in fairy tales and that all can be swept away with a glass slipper, but James is trying to make Cinderella be about kindness and goodness being their own rewards and as a result she becomes just as ridiculous as her two stepsisters.  The same could be said for Richard Madden's Prince Kit, who is also ridiculously beautiful and insanely altruistic, and both only come alive when they are flirting in the woods or while waltzing through a ballroom.  When they're pontificating to no one in particular (really the fourth wall line is so thin here to the children in the audience they might as well stare at the camera), the film feels uninspired and listless.  With the two central characters hampered with such timid performances, you get a film that lacks a center, and as a result this feels pretty pointless on-top of the fact that it's adding nothing to the "pumpkin coach" canon.

Those are my thoughts on Kenneth Branagh's latest (did anyone else not realize he was directing until the credits?).  What are yours?  Did you enjoy the latest fairy tale from Disney?  Do you wish they'd maybe tackle something that's a little less obvious like Mulan (which could be a giant battle sort of situation) next?  And what did you think of Blanchett, James, Madden, and Carter?  Share in the comments!