Belated film reviews: Elle, A Modern Cinderella Tale

After the trainwreck that was Because I Said So, my last reviewed film, I stumbled upon Elle: A Modern Cinderella Tale. I performed my usual charade, researched it on Google, and because it was so easily accessible (it is free to watch on YouTube), I went for it, in the mood for lighthearted entertainment.

I don't feel like I can objectively review a film like Elle: A Modern Cinderella Tale, simply because I am not the primary target audience for it. It is usually never a problem for me. I very often watch Disney Channel Originals and enjoy them for what they are, fuzzy and cute, and I am going to try and do the same with this one. But, just so we are clear, at the ripe old age of thirty, I should probably be watching grown-up stuff instead of preteen-orientated Cinderella stories. Oh, well.

As the title implies, Elle: A Modern Cinderella Tale takes the main plot points from the original Cinderella fairytale and transposes them into nowadays' world but circa 2009. Our heroine is Elle, a quiet, shy girl who used to dream of becoming a professional singer and songwriter until her parents, who were also artists, died in a plane crash on their way to see her perform at her Berklee College admission. She then moved to Los Angeles with Allen, who she refers to as her uncle, but isn't related to her, and was her father's best friend. Allen is the owner and big guy of Spunn Records, an undoubtedly struggling record label somewhere near Sunset Boulevard, and gives her an unpaid summer job as an intern. She makes friends with fellow intern and workmate Kitt, as well as Andy, the barista across the road. She is also being bullied and mistreated by a pop group signed to the label, Sensation.

I have to say, every single time Sensation was on screen, which is a lot, I felt assaulted by 2009 fluoro, and I was trying to figure out if a teeny-bopper film had named their girl band after Michelle Visage's old band, and I had to Google it later because I couldn't figure it out. (Michelle Visage's band was called Seduction, not Sensation. I'll give them that, though, Sensation is a great girl group name for the 2000s.)

I absolutely refuse to accept that this film is not inspired in some way, shape, or form by Taylor Swift's life. It is a realistic opinion. Elle: A Modern Cinderella Tale came out in 2010, so it was likely filmed in 2009, which was the height of Taylor Swift's Fearless era. 2009 was the year of Taylor Swift winning Grammy Awards for a country album, and the year of her wearing princess dresses and cowboy boots. It was the peak of her explosion into the public eye, of her being America's sweetheart. Why wouldn't a film with an undoubtedly limited budget and exposure want to draw inspiration from that and go down that route? Elle, the heroine, wants to become a country singer and songwriter, and she hails from Nashville, just like Swift. She has got long blonde hair and, during her solo makeover scene, she has them in tight curls. All the times when she shows her awkwardness and shyness, she looks like Taylor in You Belong With Me, all low ponytails and unfashionable glasses. (Honestly. Who picked those?) She wears cute dresses with cowboy boots and dreams of herself in princess dresses. She writes songs about wanting to be a princess. (The film's main song, Love Is With Me Now, reminded me of Swift's Today Was A Fairytale, too.) Yes, I understand this film is originally drawn from the Cinderella tale, hence the recurring fairytale theme, but I believe Taylor Swift's music and general aesthetic of the times was an inspiration, too. Even the moment when Elle reveals herself to Ty as the singer behind the mystery song and is immediately made fun of and vilified for being an obsessive fan could mirror the VMAs moment in Taylor's career, when she was meant to be shining and had someone snatch it away from her.

Elle: A Modern Cinderella Tale is not a film you watch because you want surprises and suspense. The plot is a modern version of Cinderella's fairytale, as the title very clearly explains, so you know it is going to end up with the mean step-sisters/pop stars getting what they deserve, and you know Cinderella/Elle is going to get her Prince Charming and succeed at her Berklee Audition because, contrary to what happens in real fairytales from olden centuries, women in the modern world are allowed to have careers as well as romantic relationships. Elle: A Modern Cinderella Tale is a film you watch for the journey. And it is interesting. Due to the lack of big names in the cast and the way it is filmed, all weird airbrushed moments and questionable green screen experiences, you can easily tell it has got approximately the same budget as the virtually unknown European sitcoms I used to watch when I was eleven years old. But it remains fun nonetheless, for what it is. I chose to view it as something I definitely would have loved as a child or a preteen, and I had a great time. Believe me, kid me would have definitely wanted to have a princess dress of my own, would have pretended I could sing on my toy guitar, and would have been head over heels in love with Ty Parker.

Yeah, it is predictable in the way everyone knows the story of Cinderella, but at least, it doesn't promote toxic values like certain films I have seen as of late. It is wholesome and sweet, pure, wrapped in butterfly-printed paper, glitter, and ribbons, and it's more than enough for me. It's what I wanted out of it.

Films that tried to adapt the current trends to their low budget mostly highlight how questionable aesthetics were in 2009 and 2010. Take the fashion, for example. Sensation, the pop group slash bullies, are meant to be the designed cool girls, on top of trends, on their way to stardom. They are supposed to have the look. But their look has aged SO poorly, all big pearls, leggings under dresses, heavy fringes, and keffiyehs. I would know that, I used to sport all of those bad boys at the time, and it was a dark, dark era.

Speaking of heavy fringes, they are the reason why I could not recognise the actress who played Stephanie, the lead Sensation girl, for the life of me. She looked and sounded familiar, but I could not place her at all. I had to check the cast list to put two and two together. She is portrayed by Katherine Bailess, who is most known for being Erica Marsh in season two of One Tree Hill.

Kandy Kane, the super mean girl who, I suppose, is meant to be the witch in the fairytale, wears Paul Frank plastic wristbands. Again, a fashion faux-pas I have made myself, except that my plastic wristbands did not have Paul Frank logos on them but emo and pop-punk band lyrics. Ty Parker, our Prince Charming and pop-star on his way out of teeny-bopper hits, wears a white leather jacket and a side fringe we probably all referred to as the Bieber haircut back in the day. I know all of this was fashionable at the time, but God, did it age like milk.

As has Sensation's clunky sassiness, come to think of it. Did we really talk like that? I see it in a lot of teen comedies of the time (it's pretty prominent in Disney Channel Originals such as Frenemies or Zapped), but I don't remember it being an everyday thing. Is this an attempt at emulating Glee, a show which fell short in many ways, but absolutely NAILED sassy quotes and quick remarks?

There is not much more I could possibly say about Elle: A Modern Cinderella Tale. It is desperately adorable and, despite not being the target audience for it, I ended up being sucked in and wanting Elle to succeed at the end. I mean, it is based on Cinderella, you know homegirl is going to knock that Berklee Audition out of the park and get the prince with the Bieber fringe and the white Range Rover back, but the start of it could have almost had me on the edge of my seat. It might not last as my favourite film of all time, and I might not endlessly rewatch it, but it was cute and sweet, and I had a good time. As a lover of teen pop, the songs were bops, as the kids would say. There is nothing I can fault Elle: A Modern Cinderella Tale on. Its intent is to be cute, and it succeeds in doing just that. It put a smile on my face, and it's good enough for me.