Posted on Letterboxd on August 25 2021.
To be completely honest, I was expecting better from this film
A historically accurate revision of a classic fairytale without any edgyness? Sign me right up, please; that sounds like a welcome change to the grimdark "wurh make everything edgy and evil" thing you normally see from revisions.
Well... This film delivered on that QUITE well. I'd take it any day over the average Diseaseney live action revision, adaptation etc. That's not to say it's without it's errors...
For starters, in a realistic point of view, how does a noble end up being demoted to "commoner" just because of the untimely death of a parent? Unless her title was relinquished or abdicated in some way, she'd still be a noble, the heir to the estate and it's servants at that. That didn't feel well thought out, to me. But who knows? Maybe I'm wrong in every single way and it is permissable for an unrelated stepfamily to gain the estate, but just unlikely. Thankfully, there's nothing supernatural rammed into the story.
Historical nitpicking aside, Drew Barrymore's accent, particularly in parts where her character got a bit shouty, fell apart quicker than a jenga game with polar bears. One moment she goes from speaking like the queen's goddaughter and within a femtosecond she sounds like a character from a highschool Shakespeare production. But oh well, she wouldn't have been my number one pick for this role anyway; I wasn't expecting The Godfather from her, but she did do the job surprisingly well. Dougray Scott's prince made up for the majority of my issues with her, in my opinion.
One of the movies huge redeeming factors is the costume design, particularly of Cinders and her wicked step-mother, played by the brilliant if slightly typecast Anjelica Huston. Every seam of every section of every item of clothing just manages to slide across the fine line between infectious Hollywood brilliance, and being within *relative* historic tastfulness. My particular favourite is, quite predictably, the dress that is actually worn to the ball. I won't spoil anything here, but it is quite extravagant.
So, how is it? I'd give this film a solid 6/10. I appreciate the non-edgyness of this revision, but if the choice in main role was swapped, the acting a little less hammed, plus the odd inconsistency at the start which I won't address again rewritten, I'd bump it up to 8/10. Anjelica Huston is a great and odious villain as usual, the costume design is sublime (in my opinion), plus the film doesn't overextend itself into a snore-catagory borefest; it does what it needs to do, and leaves you with a fairly enjoyable experience in mind.
Watch this if you're a romance enjoyer who wants something new, yet familiar.
Stay the hell away if you don't like soppy acting and inordinate amounts of 90s cheese.
That is all.
To be completely honest, I was expecting better from this film
A historically accurate revision of a classic fairytale without any edgyness? Sign me right up, please; that sounds like a welcome change to the grimdark "wurh make everything edgy and evil" thing you normally see from revisions.
Well... This film delivered on that QUITE well. I'd take it any day over the average Diseaseney live action revision, adaptation etc. That's not to say it's without it's errors...
For starters, in a realistic point of view, how does a noble end up being demoted to "commoner" just because of the untimely death of a parent? Unless her title was relinquished or abdicated in some way, she'd still be a noble, the heir to the estate and it's servants at that. That didn't feel well thought out, to me. But who knows? Maybe I'm wrong in every single way and it is permissable for an unrelated stepfamily to gain the estate, but just unlikely. Thankfully, there's nothing supernatural rammed into the story.
Historical nitpicking aside, Drew Barrymore's accent, particularly in parts where her character got a bit shouty, fell apart quicker than a jenga game with polar bears. One moment she goes from speaking like the queen's goddaughter and within a femtosecond she sounds like a character from a highschool Shakespeare production. But oh well, she wouldn't have been my number one pick for this role anyway; I wasn't expecting The Godfather from her, but she did do the job surprisingly well. Dougray Scott's prince made up for the majority of my issues with her, in my opinion.
One of the movies huge redeeming factors is the costume design, particularly of Cinders and her wicked step-mother, played by the brilliant if slightly typecast Anjelica Huston. Every seam of every section of every item of clothing just manages to slide across the fine line between infectious Hollywood brilliance, and being within *relative* historic tastfulness. My particular favourite is, quite predictably, the dress that is actually worn to the ball. I won't spoil anything here, but it is quite extravagant.
So, how is it? I'd give this film a solid 6/10. I appreciate the non-edgyness of this revision, but if the choice in main role was swapped, the acting a little less hammed, plus the odd inconsistency at the start which I won't address again rewritten, I'd bump it up to 8/10. Anjelica Huston is a great and odious villain as usual, the costume design is sublime (in my opinion), plus the film doesn't overextend itself into a snore-catagory borefest; it does what it needs to do, and leaves you with a fairly enjoyable experience in mind.
Watch this if you're a romance enjoyer who wants something new, yet familiar.
Stay the hell away if you don't like soppy acting and inordinate amounts of 90s cheese.
That is all.