Butler's Cinema Scene

“CINDERELLA”  My rating: B

112 minutes | MPAA rating: PG

Don’t go to Disney’s new live-action version of “Cinderella” expecting post-modern irony, a feminist perspective, or even psychological realism.

The makers of this movie take their fairy tales straight up and undiluted by any such intellectual folderol.

In last year’s “Maleficent” the Disney Studio reinterpreted its 1959 “Sleeping Beauty” from the evil fairy’s point of view.

But “Cinderella” director Kenneth Branagh and screenwriter Chris Weitz have no use for such revisionism. The fairy tale is enough for them. They aim for the heart, not the head.

Darned if they don’t pull it off.

This isn’t precisely a remake of Disney’s acclaimed 1950 animated version, but fans of the original will see plenty of references, from the evil stepmother’s pampered cat Lucifer to the fat mouse Gus.

(Now if only they’d had Helena Bonham Carter’s Fairy Godmother sing “Bippity Boppity Boo”…well, can’t have everything.)

Cate Blanchett…evil stepmother

The story, of course, is known by all.  In this version young Ella (Lily James, aka Lady Rose on “Downton Abbey”) first loses her mother (Hayley Atwell), whose dying advice is to “Have courage and be kind.”  Then her widowed father (Ben Chaplin) remarries, only to succumb himself to disease.

Which leaves poor Ella at the mercy of her nasty Stepmother (Cate Blanchett in full wicked mode) and brainless, vain stepsisters (Sophie McShera, best known as Daisy the apprentice cook on “Downton Abbey” and Holliday Grainger, who plays Lucretia Borgia on Showtime’s “The Borgias”).

Ella, whose only companions are the animated mice and farm animals, escapes her life of drudgery by fleeing to the woods, where she meets and charms the Prince (Richard Madden, the late Rob Stark from “Game of Thrones”).

This leads to the spectacular ball, the arrival of the Fairy Godmother with her bag of magic tricks, that notorious glass slipper, and a big fat case of Happily Ever After.

Along the way there’s a smattering of well-known faces in supporting roles: Derek Jacobi as the King, Stellan Skarsgard as a scheming Grand Duke, funnyman Rob Brydon  as a court painter.

The art direction and costuming are all over the place, referencing everything from the Napoleonic to the late Victorian eras.  Somehow, though, all these disparate elements blend nicely.

Pulling it all together is James’ Cinderella. When you think about it, Cinderella is a thankless role…she has to be sweet and kind even in the face of infuriating cruelty.  Misplayed she’s a simpering pushover or, worse, a masochist.

But James somehow imbues the character with substance. Don’t know where she found  it, because on paper the role must have been as flat as western Kansas.

All I know is that when she finally makes her entrance at the ball in a spectacular blue gown, even the cynics in the house may find themselves forcing down a killer throat-lump.

A fairy tale can do that.

| Robert W. Butler