Quartile rating: 7/10 · 1 rating
When her father unexpectedly passes away, young Ella finds herself at the mercy of her cruel stepmother and her daughters. Never one to give up hope, Ella's fortunes begin to change after meeting a dashing stranger in the woods.
Kenneth Branagh's 2015 Cinderella is a visually sumptuous live-action fairy tale that earns its highest marks in cinematography — Sandy Powell's costumes, the lush production design, and Haris Zambarloukos's warm, painterly photography make it genuinely gorgeous. Lily James and Cate Blanchett both deliver committed performances, elevating the material, though the supporting cast is thinner. The plot is inherently constrained by its source material — a near-verbatim retelling of the classic story with little new dramatic tension or subversion. Novelty suffers for the same reason: while the execution is elegant and sincere, it breaks no new ground in the fairy-tale genre. The ending is pleasant and emotionally satisfying on its own modest terms, though entirely predictable.