Cinderella (2015)
	Rating: 7.1/10 (62494 votes) Director: Kenneth Branagh Writer: Chris Weitz (screenplay) Stars: Cate Blanchett, Lily James, Richard Madden, Helena Bonham Carter Runtime: 105 min Rated: PG Genre: Drama, Family, Fantasy Released: 13 Mar 2015
Plot: When her father unexpectedly passes away, young Ella finds herself at the mercy of her cruel stepmother and her daughters. Never one to give up hope, Ella's fortunes begin to change after meeting a dashing stranger.

I’m a big fan of fairy tales, especially ones where the heroine gets to actually do something. Not just the classics, but new adaptations, too – like 1998’s wonderful Ever After. Unfortunately, this latest version of Cinderella, while visually stunning, shows very little in the way of innovation. There are a couple of things I like, most notably Helena Bonham Carter as the cooky fairy godmother and Cate Blanchett’s stylish turn as the evil stepmother, but the con-list is much, much longer…

It starts with Lily James’ distractingly undyed eyebrows and ends with Ella’s complete passivity after she’s locked up in the attic by her stepmother. Seriously – a whole liveried search party is stood under her window, definitely noticeably, and it’s her flipping mice that open the latch for her, thus enabling the Prince to hear her singing! The movie tried very hard to turn her into a person with agency, but when push comes to shove, she. Doesn’t. Open. The. Window. *facepalm*

I can forgive a lot in a fairy tale, but no matter how stunning the costumes (very!) and how hard the film tries to give dimension to its characters, that just made me want to tear my hair out… Also, the movie kept repeating its “core message” (have courage and be kind), over and over and over, until I wanted to play a drinking game (and I don’t really drink). The overall levels of saccharine sweetness were hard enough to stomach as it were. The perfect example how the movie aimed for beautiful and just took it a step too far: Cinderella’s blue ball gown is donned in a lovely magical transformation scene – and then they put plastic butterflies all over it. Plastic butterflies. Just… no.

Surprisingly, Ella’s relationship with the Prince I actually quite liked – she meets him on horseback, which reminded me of another favourite Cinderella adaptation (the Christmas classic Three Wishes for Cinderella), and they have nice chemistry. Unfortunately the big finale once again suffers from too much sugar and not enough substance – the wedding gown is lovely, but the dialogue is decidedly lack-lustre. The whole thing simply didn’t manage to touch me OR make me properly laugh (with some very few exceptions), remaining nothing but a fluff of cotton candy that left me with a bit of a toothache. I can’t help but wishing the film makers had taken a few more risks and not stuck to the formula quite so literally – it could only have improved things, in my opinion.