Cinderella
(2015)
I guess you can’t really complain about a new version
of Disney’s animated Cinderella, but
live action this time, doing exactly what everyone expected of a new version of
Disney’s animated Cinderella, but
live action this time. I mean, it could
have been fun, vibrant, witty, clever, different, twisted, edgy – any of those things, or even just one – rather than entirely obvious, without even the
slightest glimmer of creativity. But then it might have run the risk of not
being what audiences wanted (or were made to want, since the Mouse House is
astutely serving up yesterday’s leftovers, with a sprig of garnish and advertised
as Today’s Special).
It’s difficult to foresee how this wave of live action
Disneys will go, as Alice in Wonderland
– loathed as it was, but enormously successful, post-converted to 3D as it was
– didn’t necessarily head down the typical route, taking an adult Alice and
returning her to the location of her childhood adventures. In essence at least,
this Cinderella sounds like it also
had something else going on, since original director Mark Romanek – who has a
contract whereby he can only ever work on pictures for so long before he is
thrown off them by studios unimpressed with his vision and potential for lining
their coffers – was driving towards something darker. What Disney has ended up
with is reflective of the 1950 film in as much as it’s inoffensively unmemorable
(except that at least that was an
animation, so more striking for all that it wasn’t one of the studio’s best).
They surely must have desired it exactly that tepid, since
Chris Weitz, who ensured the adaptation of The
Golden Compass had nothing very engaging going for it either, penned the
screenplay. And, adding to the monumental averageness of the enterprise, the
impossible miracle (tragedy) of Kenneth Branagh’s incarnation as a name
director saw him take the helm.
He flirted with this back in the early ‘90s, post Henry V acclaim, when he took on a
rightly-derided big screen Frankenstein
(itself coming off the back of Coppola’s
Dracula). Sir Ken has never been any great shakes as a director. He’s very
much from the Chris Carter school of the craft, whereby anything really
incontinent or overt, regardless of affinity with the material, is fair game,
hence his penchant for relentlessly swirling camera moves to the point of
nausea, and a fascination with Dutch angles that would put Sidney J Furie to
shame. Somehow, after mounting a limp remake of Sleuth, he got the Thor
gig and brought Marvel a hit with its cod-Shakespearean Asgard – and Dutch
angles aplenty. And presto, Ken’s fairy
godmother has sprung it so he now regularly pops up on director casting lists,
be it Jack Ryan or Disney classics.
Cinderella might
have done with a bit more of “classic” Ken, the Ken with his delirious camera,
as it’s impossibly staid and formal. There’s one moment, as Cinders (Lily
James) flees the castle, where he throws in a skewed view, but just the one –
that I remember – so perhaps he was on
strict rations. It’s all incredibly unadventurous, from the casting (James is
okay, Richard Madden is okay, notably more likable than in Game of Thrones, Cate Blanchett is okay, although by her standards
she’s on autopilot, Helena Bonham Carter is
on autopilot, by way of channelling Joanna Lumley) to the set design, to the
sickly mantra (“Have courage, and be
kind… and all will be well”; I much prefer her mother’s early pronouncement
“I believe in everything”, a good
example to set for the kids and one in the eye for Dawkins-types everywhere).
There’s even scant regard for the vaguest drama; everything
happens to Cinderella, even her hardships, incredibly easily and with very
little effort. Forget about dwelling upon loss etc. The Fairy Godmother’s
voiceover nudges the proceedings along throughout, as if the makers are afraid
of what might happen if she wasn’t there to state the bleeding obvious and proffer
a comfort blanket.
There are a few bright spots. Ben Chaplin brings a tangibly
different energy to Cinderella’s father, Nonso Anozie has a considerable fun as
the Captain of the Guards, Holliday Grainger and Sophie McShera are suitably
bitchy as the stepsisters, and Derek Jacobi is dependably and winningly Derek
Jacobi as the King. Stellan Skarsgard, as the Grand Duke, repeatedly seems on
the edge of going the full Gert Froebe but unfortunately always brings it back
down again (in contrast, Rob Brydon is dreadful in a brief cameo; hopefully he
can at least use the anecdote for his next outing with Steve Coogan). The
transforming (reverting) coach and crew scene is jolly, but you’d hope it would
be, as transforming things are the major attraction of doing this live. Well,
that and selling tickets to Disneyworld. And all the princess costumes the
little darlings will be begging their parents to buy them.
I’m not averse to a solid Disney fairy tale; in the
last decade both Enchanted and Frozen delivered the goods for both the
studio’s live action and animation divisions. But this new range, bright
(money-making) idea as it may be, has left me unconvinced. Maleficent was unmitigated stodge, but an enormous hit regardless.
The upcoming The Jungle Book looks as
if it has no reason to be other than the technology that brought it into being.
Warner Bros’ recent Pan illustrated how easy it is to put a foot wrong with this kind
of fare (and one wonders how well Universal’s The Huntsman prequel will do bereft of Snow White; Alice Through the Looking Glass likewise,
now the 3D boom has lost its initial must-see lustre). I suspect next year’s Beauty and the Beast (from Bill Condon)
will be every bit the hit that’s hoped for.
And I don’t doubt that Burton’s Dumbo will turn out to be as competently unnecessary with a dash of
whacky as all his remakes. Pinocchio
(with Downey Jr)? Well, anything to wash away the taste of the Bengigni
version. Another Peter Pan? Why not,
someone has to make a live action version that’s both a hit and also good eventually. A couple on
the Disney list (The Sword in the Stone,
The Black Cauldron) actually have
potential, but Cinderella merely
confirms that, unlike several of their other franchises (Marvel, Lucasfilm)
Disney really only has an eye on how
much lucre they’re going to reel in with these retreads, and negligible
interest in artistic merit.
