One of these days, that slipper is not going to fit.
With a fairy godmother's worth of talent behind and on the screen, Disney's Cinderella has been magically transformed into as sumptuous a live-action re-imagining of its 1950 animated classic as any princess could dream of.
Still, there's a sense of a clock about to strike midnight on this particular way of telling the story.
Under Kenneth Branagh's masterful direction, a radiant Lily James channels the grace of Lady Rose, the sweet young aristocrat she plays in iTV's Downton Abbey. She comes off as far more resilient than the original Cinderella, who never stands up to her tormentors. Yet she remains a heroine who must be saved by a godmother and a mouse. Her story unfolds in a vibrantly hued fairy-tale countryside, but the overall homogeneity of the cast is jarring in our multicultural world.
Those who treasure Disney's original adaptation of Charles Perrault's Cendrillon won't be disappointed. Working with About a Boy screenwriter Chris Weitz, Branagh keeps favorite details, from Gus Gus the mouse to the godmother, played with witty edge by Helena Bonham Carter as she intones the requisite "bibbidi-bobbidi-boo."
The tale is extended rather than changed, fleshing out Cinderella's story so we see her growing up to choose the courage and kindness her mother urges on her deathbed. Before the ball, Cinderella rides out into the countryside, where she meets the prince (who conceals his identity) while he is on a hunt. The persuasive passion with which she argues for the stag's right to live and her message that just because something is always done a certain way does not mean it should be done that way warms his heart.
Robert Madden's dashing prince navigates disagreements about marriage and succession with much better luck than his unfortunate Robb Stark character on HBO's Game of Thrones. Derek Jacobi offers touching paternal and royal concern as the ailing King.
Two-time Academy Award winner Cate Blanchett turns in the most hypnotic performance, lending a depth to the stepmother that startles with intensity. Her character is riddled by jealousy and a sense that life has cheated her, and there's a glitter to her withheld tears that suggests the almost Shakespearean tragedy of someone whose choices generate the outcome she tries to avert.
This Cinderella tantalizes with ideas, but once the carriage arrives at the castle, we return to what this version always was about. Watching James approach the prince in that effervescent gown and sparkling glass slippers, designed by three-time Academy Award winner Sandy Powell, evokes the fantasy of love won by the perfect look and dance step. A time may come when little girls stop buying into this, but that midnight has not yet hit.
CINDERELLA (B+)
Directed by Kenneth Branagh.PG (mild thematic elements).105 mins. In wide release.
