Starring: Camila Cabello, Idina Menzel, Nicholas Gallitzine, Maddie Baillio, Charlotte Spencer, Tallulah Greive, Minnie Driver, Billy Porter, Pierce Brosnan, John Mulaney, James Corden, Ramesh Ranganathan
My Rating: 3/5 Stars
Rotten Tomatoes: 44% Critics, 69% Audience
Rotten Tomatoes Description: “Cinderella is a musically-driven bold new take on the traditional story you grew up with. Our heroine (Camila Cabello) is an ambitious young woman, whose dreams are bigger than the world will allow, but with the help of her Fab G (Billy Porter), she is able to persevere and make her dreams come true.”
Short Version:
A jukebox musical that’s music was only enlivened by its cast, this iteration of Cinderella really finds its footing in the fact that this film lacks a clear and malicious villain. It has some fresh elements and famous faces that make it a fun watch, even if it is telling a story we’ve all heard before. There is a good balance in this movie of humor, heart, and topical dialogue which lacks in some remakes. It is charming and a nice watch, if nothing exceptional. Perfect for an easy night with a bottle of wine or a big bowl of popcorn, just leave your lips free for humming when hits like “Somebody to Love” and “Material Girl” strike their first chord.
Long Version:
Cinderella is a familiar story, we all know, even if we aren’t intimately acquainted with every nuance. Each iteration aims to bring something new, most notably a new perspective from which to tell the story, and the phrase that I have seen floating around this movie so frequently is that this is the “girl boss” iteration. This is the version of the fairytale where Cinderella gets a job that is more than just being a maid, and let me say, it was nice to see a girl with a dream that was more than simply her freedom, especially in a more traditional telling, it sets the course for a movie that is more than love at first sight and gives our Ella some much needed spunk.
Now, onto those issues that make the movie “less than”. I say less than, because I think this movie could have been more, but choices were made that diminished some of the quality along the way. First and foremost, the big one. As a jukebox musical, the potential for originality was stripped from the film, there were real and present moments where fresh music would have allowed a cleaner message, and the songs not being tailored to the singers, even in altering the songs they selected, means that the star-studded cast they had was under-utilized. Most jarring for me was “Am I Wrong”, which would have benefitted from a tempo change, or perhaps an acoustic version to better match the mood of the moment and the singers performing. This is perhaps why Cabello’s song “A Million to One” is the highlight of the film, it simply fits the narrative without question. The rest of the film, it feels like despite being a musical, the music was an afterthought, which should have been obvious when they had mice squeak in the musical part of a song.
In all honesty, if not for the music, there were a lot of positive aspects of the movie, the restructuring of the plot to allow Ella and the prince to meet and interact before the ball. It also gives us a keen view into the family dynamics of the film another restructuring that warrants attention, as it eliminates the distinct villain from the film. If asked who the bad guy in the Cinderella story is, everyone would answer the Evil Step Mother. Or some versions make it the king (Ella Enchanted), but this movie makes it…the patriarchy? Perhaps just the society from which the story springs, which has victimized the women in equal measure, Ella, her Step-Mother and stepsisters, the princess, and the queen all speak to their trials in their boxes in society. Even the prince has to break from his role to seek his happily ever after. The embedded message for the next generation of children who will grow up with this iteration, is that sometimes you have to leave the spaces that make you comfortable, or that society wants to place you in, and that is such a strong lesson for a film to have. Not to mention that this film did keep me giggling all along, with a steady diet of humor that spanned from situational to physical, and of course just well timed, well placed jokes. I enjoyed it more than I thought I would.
Favorite moments:
- “Well perhaps you should have married the sea monster.” “I’d have to get grandmother’s ring resized.”
- “You can’t leave actors in a room without attention. They’ll die.”
- Somebody to Love (Ella Enchanted vibes anyone?)
- “GET OFF MY DAD!”
- “Yes, I was just crying and singing about it like two minutes ago.”
- “Any way to make (the glass slippers) more comfortable? No?”
- The “Whatta Man” sequence
- The cellist smashing her instrument and calmly grabbing another.
- “Great, this is gonna be a lengthy discussion.”
All images belong to the film and the production companies. Thanks for stopping by and I would love to hear what you think of this version of Cinderella.
Megan’s Musings 