Disney love a good princess and why flaming not; they are making them billions after Anna and Elsa's Frozen journey to our hearts and Maleficent turning her evil arch on its head. After the marriage of 'commoner' Kate Middleton to real life Prince, William, the Cinderella story was ripe for an update to cash in on all that royal good will.
Kenneth Branagh has always had an eye for the opulent with his chess-like set design on Hamlet, Botticellian vision of Shakespeare's 'Much Ado About Nothing' and the absolutely massive 'Thor', so he was a natural to direct the live action version of 'Cinderella'.
This story really doesn't veer off the course set by the 1950 cartoon version we all know. Cinderella is the product of loving parents, played by Hayley Atwell and Ben Chaplin. They live a fairy tale existence where magic is the kindness in our hearts and courage is all we need to face anything - and then Cinders' parents die so, you know, that's completely crap.
Cinderella, played by Lily James of Downton Abbey, positively sweats good will and kindness in spite of the cruelty show her by her step-mother Lady Tremaine, played by the wickedly excellent Cate Blanchett, and the ugly sisters (Sophie McShera of Downton Abbey and Holliday Grainger of Great Expectations)
She toils away accepting her lot when Lady Tremaine turns her from loved daughter to despised servant until one day, in our version of throwing a book against a wall and screaming in utter frustration, she hops on a horse and gallops bare back into the forest where she happens to meet Kit (Richard Madden of Game of Thrones) who is really the Prince. He hides his real identity 'cause who falls in love with a prince who has yet to experience the horrors of inbreeding?
You know the rest of the story. There is a ball. Cinderella isn't allowed to go, her fairy godmother, played by the utterly delicious Helena Bonham Carter, intercedes, off she goes. The Prince loves her, must have her, she loses her shoe ( I hear that sister, shoes dotted all around the country but no one has ever bothered to return mine) he searches for her and, blammo, what every girl wants - MARRIAGE!
The film looks beautiful even if the using of CGI to make the already skinny Lily James' waist even smaller is bloody ridiculous.... which hasn't been confirmed. One of the highlights are the costumes that Cate Blanchett wears. It is almost impossible to not want her on screen just to see what 40s inspired decadent gown she will be wearing. Blanchett herself is great. Understated and over the top at once. Lily James could do with losing the doe eyed look. It does get a bit grating. Madden is underused but perfectly lovely even if his teeth are too white.
Cinderella was never one of my favourite fairy-tales due to the message of changing oneself to get a man and the whole marriage being the only way a woman is truly fulfilled and saved but, if you like a spectacular, this won't disappoint. Children might even like the CGI mice that I would have been happy for the cat to get.
The morals of integrity and kindness, which are the over-arching themes of the movie, are something that we would all like our children to embody but we also want them to be able to stand up for themselves. In this beautiful, slightly dark and sometimes funny movie, Cinderella's courage is elsewhere. You just want her to cop on and tell her step family to feck off, no I won't bloody make your breakfast but, c'est la vie, Cinders is a docile beauty with no back bone.
To be perfectly honest, I was a bit distracted by Helena Bonham-Carter being in a film directed by her ex-boyfriend, Kenneth Branagh, whom was still married to one of her friends, Emma Thompson, when things all got a bit sexy between her and ol Ken in the 90s. Wouldn't you love to see Emma in Branagh's next film? Then we'll know that being friends with ex's is graaaaaaand 'cause Emma Thompson and Helena Bonham Carter should rule all.
Cinderella is out in cinemas on March 27th.
Muireann O'Connell.
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TWITTER: @MuireannOConnel
