Cinderella (2021) - Film Review

Best known for writing Pitch Perfect, Kay Cannon new film takes a feminist twist on a classic fairytale. Our ambitious heroine has big dreams and with the help of her fab Godmother, she perseveres to make them come true.

Now, this film was initially supposed to release in cinemas - but opted to go for an exclusive Amazon Prime release. With critics taking no prisoners and some questionable promotion at the Hollywood boulevard from the cast involving James Cordon thrusting at a car window dressed as a mouse… my hopes weren’t high for this rendition of Cinderella.

Aside from a handful of original songs, this was a jukebox musical - which gave strong Glee and Pitch Perfect vibes and clearly fits in with the director’s style. However, I wasn’t that keen on the songs collection - many felt over done or didn’t compliment the story as much as I’d like. One particular Queen song I found myself groaning at how on the nose it was for the plot.

There were some good attempts to flesh out the characters - Idina Menzel in particular had an interesting storyline with the stepmother archetype, both she and the stepsisters had a lot more depth than you’d expect. However, characters like the horrific CGI mice and the slapstick humour made this an infuriating watch at times.

Camila Cabello was actually better than I expected acting wise - I wasn’t keen on her having one song reprised two times throughout the film. Her chemistry with Nicholas Galizine (who played Prince Robert) was lukewarm and the relationship itself was very rushed… even for a fairytale. The extravaganza of Billy Porter’s costume outweighed Helen Bonham Carter’s Fairy Godmother and he really committed with the screen time he had.

This film looked at more of a feminist perspective of Cinderella. Others have in the past, however this focused on the role that a woman was reduced to in an 18th century village. Cinderella represents the idealistic dreamer, Stepmother represents the woman who gave up on her dreams, the Queen represents the woman who married well but no longer feels heard and the Princess represents the women who deserve to be in important roles but are silenced at every turn.

These four characters had so much potential, but a lot of their moments were reduced to comedic afterthoughts or themes that were barely expanded upon. The tone of this film was difficult to pin down as well, there are times where I gave real Disney Channel vibes, then a bit of Glee vibes and straight up adult humour sprinkled in. I suppose the best way to sum up this film is that it had a lot of deep themes that were superficially portrayed.

I actually was expecting this film to be a lot worse, especially given the criticism it has received from critics and moviegoers alike. However, there were moments that were genuinely enjoyable for the family and not all the musical numbers were awful. The cast could sing, I just would have picked different songs for certain scenes. The intention and idea behind this feminism portrayal of Cinderella was great, the ensemble cast (minus a couple who have been cast in the exact same role one too many times) were decent and overall this piece had potential - it just didn’t deliver as much as it could have done. When you are trying to tackle feminist issues, it should not be reduced to a quippy one liner.

Therefore, I will sadly have to give Cinderella a ★½.