Precious little has changed in the plot itself, apart from a scene in which Cinderella meets Kit (“Game of Thrones” king Richard Madden) before the story’s famous ball, motivating the charming prince to expand the roster of invited guests beyond mere royalty to include all the young ladies of the land. Given how closely this version adheres to the well-known plot, watching the movie can feel a bit like one of those “Double Check” exercises from Highlights magazine, in which eagle-eyed kids are asked to spot the tiny differences between two otherwise identical drawings. One might say it builds character - would that it did, for Cinderella doesn’t necessarily come across any more dimensional here than she did in the earlier animated film. These tragic circumstances have always been a part of Cinderella’s backstory, though it’s asking rather much of a young audience to experience the loss of both parents alongside the story’s long-suffering heroine. In short order, Mother falls ill and Father remarries, only to expire on his next business trip abroad, leaving the young lady at the mercy of Lady Tremaine and her two insufferable daughters, Anastasia (Holliday Grainger) and Drizella (Sophie McShera), who promptly demote their half-sister to scullery maid, rechristening the poor soot-smeared wretch “Cinderella.” Perhaps unwisely, the fairy tale opens while Ella is still a girl (Eloise Webb), showered with love by her birth parents (Ben Chaplin and Hayley Atwell). With eyes wide, brows arched and her mouth in a permanent scowl, Blanchett blends aspects of Bette Davis, Barbara Stanwyck and Marlene Dietrich into an epic villainess, so deliciously unpleasant one almost wishes the film were focused more on her.Īlas, this is Cinderella’s story - relatively blasé by comparison, though still quite promising in the wish-fulfillment department. Only Cate Blanchett, who plays the imperious Lady Tremaine, fashion-plate stepmother to ash-covered orphan Ella (“Downton Abbey’s” Lily James), seems fit to hold her own against such extravagant costumes and sets - and none of the outfits are more formidable than Blanchett’s elaborate wardrobe of brilliant green gowns, stunningly designed to complement the butterfly-lit star’s ginger locks and ruby-red lips. Such a lavish approach is not without its drawbacks, as it can inadvertently serve to make the human cast feel almost plain by contrast. It’s the dazzling texture those two bring to the production that makes “Cinderella” such an exquisite visual experience, in which every gown is a thing to covet, each room one that audiences can imagine themselves exploring to their hearts’ content. The goal, of course, is to give fans and future adherents alike a chance to delve deeper into the world suggested by uncle Walt’s “original,” for which no less a pair than costume queen Sandy Powell and production-design maestro Dante Ferretti have been enlisted. Unlike last year’s daringly revisionist “Maleficent” or the prince-shirking Cinderella seen in Stephen Sondheim’s wink-wink “Into the Woods,” this kid-gloves production plays things ultra-careful, lest it inadvertently cause a single person to love the 1950 toon one iota less. The latest in a trend to rework the most precious treasures in the Mouse House vault, “Cinderella” is by far the studio’s most calculated retelling yet, to the extent that those who know the toon by heart may find Chris Weitz’s serviceable script a wee bit dull. More importantly, the underlying property emerges untarnished, as director Kenneth Branagh reverently reimagines Charles Perrault’s fairy tale for a new generation the world over, spelling countless opportunities to exploit fresh interest in the story throughout the Disney universe. can attest, no animals were harmed in the making of this delightful if overly safe update of the gold-standard toon classic. In Disney’s new live-action “ Cinderella,” four mice are ballooned into elegant white horses, two lizards are forced to serve as makeshift footmen, and an oblivious old goose gets zapped into driving a pumpkin carriage.
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