Cinderella Review

Last year Disney released a live action retelling of their animated classic Sleeping Beauty in the film Maleficent. It was okay; it would have been much worse without Angelina Jolie. This year, another live action remake of different animated Disney classic was released. After Maleficent's hype and subsequent mediocrity, I wasn't too keen on seeing the new Cinderella (2015). I was pleasantly surprised to find an engaging movie that has stuck to its (Disney) source better than the other fairy tale movies that have been released in the past several years.

Young Ella (Lily James) was raised in a happy and loving home by her parents (Ben Chaplin & Hayley Atwell). Her merchant father remarries following the tragic death of her mother. Keen to support her loving father, Ella welcomes her new stepmother Lady Tremaine (Cate Blanchett) and her daughters Anastasia (Holliday Grainger) and Drizella (Sophie McShera) into the family home. But when Ella's father suddenly and unexpectedly passes away, she finds herself at the mercy of a jealous and cruel new family. Finally relegated to nothing more than a servant girl covered in ashes, and spitefully renamed "Cinderella" since she is made to work in the cinders, Ella could easily begin to lose hope. Yet, despite the cruelty inflicted upon her, Ella is determined to honor her mother's dying words to "have courage and be kind." She will not give in to despair nor despise those who abuse her. One day Cinderella meets a dashing stranger in the woods (Richard Madden). Unaware that he is really a prince, not merely an employee at the palace, Ella finally feels she has met a kindred soul. It appears as if her fortunes may be about to change when the palace sends out an open invitation for all maidens to attend a ball, raising Ella's hopes of once again encountering the charming "Kit." Alas, her stepmother forbids her to attend and callously rips apart her dress. But as in all good fairy tales, help is at hand as a kindly beggar woman (Helena Bonham Carter) steps forward and, armed with a pumpkin and a few mice, changes Cinderella's life forever.

It's interesting that Disney chose to stick to the sweet innocence of their classic animated feature when remaking this live action adaptation. We've had movies like Red Riding Hood, Snow White and the Huntsman, Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters, and Jack the Giant Slayer which are all dark reimaginings of Grimm's fairy tales. But Cinderella stuck to its guns and remained a cute, romantic, and charming adaptation of the Disney animated classic. Had this come out ten years ago, I don't think it would have been as well received. Many of these dark fairy tales explore themes such as feminism, the blurred lines between hero and villain, and the strength of women. Those are great, and this Cinderella does focus on feminine strength, but not the sort in the previously mentioned movies. I think that to contrast these dark interpretations, Cinderella provides some pleasant themes of kindness for which we redeveloped a craving after all the mature and dark movies of the past decade. Some of them were good, but Cinderella is kind of a breath of fresh air we didn't realize we wanted.

This Cinderella has been criticized for making a weak girly character of its tragic heroine, lacking agency and independence. I disagree! Cinderella does have horrible things happen to her; had I been in her shoes I would have retaliated. But despite her circumstances, she chooses to return Lady Tremaine's cruelty with kindness and patience. She had the power to leave her abusive stepmother at any time, but chose to care for the home of her parents to honor their memory in spite of how demeaning and emotionally painful her stepfamily was. Also, in the scene where Prince "Kit" and Cinderella meet in the woods, at no point did I feel like he was in control. Cinderella was in control of the conversation and the outcome and allowing herself to be herself, regardless of what was thought of her. Furthermore, Cinderella had no interest in meeting the prince at the ball; her whole motive for attending was to simply have another chance meet the young man she'd met in the woods, not knowing he actually was the prince. She was not interested in high society, glitz and glamor, nor was she seeking to anything of self-interest. Cinderella was simply seeking a kindred spirit. This character is not defined by the men in her life, nor is she seeking to live up to men's expectations. Having said that, I think this Cinderella is more pro-feminism than Maleficent was; female strength needn't be physical nor should it be defined as power over men. It can very much be strength of character and sticking to ones principles. I love the warrior princess characters we've had in the past couple of years such as Merida in Brave, she and others are fantastic and worth emulating. I'm simply delighted to see a female protagonist be the type of woman who has the courage to be kind in a world full of cruelty. That's the kind of strength of character I think we should encourage and instill within our daughters.

I think this Cinderella is a better role model than its animated predecessor. I never liked the animated Cinderella movie that much because kind as the character is, she basically sits around wishing things were better and wants to go to the ball because girls like that kind of thing and the prince is handsome. This doesn't lend itself to depth of character, and even as a kid I thought she was uninteresting. I don't really like characters who rely on others to fix things for them, regardless of gender. This Cinderella, though, sticks to her principles with kindness and patience. She has moments of sorrow, but recommits herself to being a good person. It's not until she has reached her lowest low that her will finally breaks and begins to accept the world as a cruel place, no matter how hard she tries to make it good. At this point her Fairy Godmother intervenes, not to solve all her problems, but to give her the boost she needs to overcome her trials and find a sense of happiness again. The deus ex machina plot device that the fairy godmother normally provides is still present, but this Cinderella seems much more deserving of it. She's worked hard to be a force for good in her world rather than simply wishing things would get better.

I often mention good costuming to illustrate a time period. But the costumes and dresses in Cinderella were stunning and gorgeous beyond compare! Lady Tremaine's dresses are always the height of fashion, and Blanchett displays them as well as any fashion model would. The gown that Cinderella is granted for the ball is striking and resplendent; often put against orange colors, blue dress looks picturesque in every shot and almost seems to gracefully move of its own accord while Cinderella dances.

The only real issue I had with Cinderella was the CGI animal friends. Cute animal sidekicks and friends work well in animated Disney features, but in live action movies they tend to become awkward very quickly. I saw them in the trailer and was worried they would act as the primary comic relief, and be silly as they so often do in animated features. While they do appear regularly in the movie, it's only for short bouts and they act mostly like normal mice. I think it would have been just a little bit better had they trained some mice to run around looking cute rather than having slightly cartoonish digital mice run around looking cute.

Cinderella is a fantastic remake of Disney's classic animated feature. It's refreshingly traditional in this revisionist era of movie remakes. Kenneth Branagh shows us that Disney hasn't lost any of its old fashioned magic. This version has more depth and complexity than the original, but holds true to the classic tale even with some unexpected twists. They've done something right; this story has been retold many times over.  This fresh take on the story caused me to gasp a few times. This Cinderella is a stronger and more interesting character than her animated predecessor, and of a class that I would like to see more of. I even got caught up in the romance which is normally so clichéd that I check out of that particular subplot.  Cinderella is a good movie! The camera work was breathtaking in some scenes, especially the fireworks display at the ball.  After mulling it over in my mind, I've decided that I want a copy of it on Blu-Ray when it becomes available. You can wait until then if you want, but I think this is worth the price of a movie ticket.

With Cinderella being as well done as it was, I think I'm looking forward to Disney's upcoming live action Beauty and the Beast movie. That's one of my favorite animated Disney movies, and they'd better not screw it up! What are your feelings about this Cinderella movie and the upcoming Beauty and the Beast one? Comment below and let me know!

Dark Shadows Movie Review

Many year ago there was a television soap opera called Dark Shadows, that ran from 1966 to 1971. While originally not intending to have supernatural elements in it, the show eventually featured ghosts, vampires, werewolves, witches, zombies, time travel, and parallel universes. Directors Tim Burton and Quentin Tarantino have publicly stated they were fans of the TV show. Johnny Depp was obsessed with the show as a child and wanted to be the prominent vampire character, Barnabas Collins. Well, if Tim Burton and Johnny Depp liked Dark Shadows so much, a movie (2012) was inevitable.

In 1772, Barnabas (Johnny Depp) has the world at his feet until he makes the grave mistake of breaking the heart of Angelique Bouchard (Eva Green). A witch in every sense of the word, Angelique dooms him to a fate worse than death: turning him into a vampire and burying him alive. Two centuries later, Barnabas is inadvertently freed from his tomb and emerges into the very changed world of 1972. He returns to Collinwood Manor to find that his once-grand estate has fallen into ruin. The Dysfunctional remnants of the Collins family have fared little better, each harboring their own dark secrets; the inhabitants include Elizabeth Collins (Michelle Pfeiffer) who runs the family fortune, her teenage daughter Carolyn (Chloe Grace Mortez), Elizabeth's useless brother Roger (Jonny Lee Miller), Roger's Disturbed son David (Gully McGrath), and a live-in psychiatrist named Dr. Julia Hoffman (Helena Bonham Carter). Even after centuries have passed, Angelique shows up to wreak havoc on the Collins family and tear them apart.

I think Tim Burton films are fun and I love watching Johnny Depp perform. The director and actor duo tend to produce movies that are fun to watch, even if a little strange. Dark Shadows was chockful of Tim Burton's signature Gothic style; weird angles, vividly contrasting colors, elaborate sets and costumes, a variety of wacky characters, and often dark humor. If you're a fan of Tim Burton, you will not be disappointed by the rich and strange visuals Burton is known for.

Since the role of Barnabas Collins was a childhood dream of Depp's you can rest assured that his performance is pitch perfect and intense. You'd think that with the dark and often strange roles Depp portrays, he would have been a vampire at least once before, but this is a first for him. Barnabas is a 18th-century  Englishman who has awakened in the 1970's; he treats people with elaborate courtesy. Depp's performance is haughty and mannered, as it probably should be for the character. But on the other hand, so is the performance of every other actor. This creates a sort of strange style in the movie's overall presentation that seems to teeter between satire and being snooty to the audience. That may have been intentional to captivate the  melodramatic quality of the original TV show, but it felt a bit weird to me.

A problem with trying to capture all the fun stuff from the TV show in a movie is that the movie seemed rushed. The back story in the introduction, while very well done, probably could have been a movie all by itself. The Dark Shadows movie had a huge cast and never seemed to give enough screen time to any of the characters other than Barnabas and Angelique. So when some of the Collin's family secrets come into play, it seem to be an all too convenient plot device rather than a logical twist in character development. I don't even know why Barnabas's love interest developed; the two characters have maybe two short scenes together.

Dark Shadows was really fun. It was highly stylized in a classic Tim Burton fashion and we had a great performance from Johnny Depp. While the story started out promising, it seemed rushed and didn't seem to know where it was going most of the time. The humor mostly centered around Barnabas's reaction to 1970's pop culture, which is usually good for a few laughs. It averages out to be a fun movie, but not necessarily a good one. If you're a fan of Tim Burton or Johnny Depp, Dark Shadows is worth owning. But even if you're not a fan, I still recommend renting it at least because it's so fun.

Is there a TV show you'd love to see made into a movie? I think a Gilligan's Island movie might be cool, or possibly Blake's 7. Comment below and tell me what you think!

Les Misérables Movie Review

Les Misérables is a story that has been told through the medium of film many times before. It's a classic novel by Victor Hugo and has had at least two film adaptations per decade since 1907. But the 2012 version is the fist film adaptation of the stage production. Les Misérables brought all the power and emotion of the longest running Broadway Musical ever to the big screen.

After 19 years in prison (five for stealing bread for his starving sister and her family, and the rest for trying to escape), Jean Valjean (Hugh Jackman) is released on parole by the policeman Javert (Russell Crow). After a merciful Bishop (Colm Wilkinson, who famously played Valjean on stage) gives Valjean some precious silver to sell for money, Valjean turns his life around and makes himself a wealthy factory owner and mayor of a town in France. Javert is still hunting for Valjean since he did not meet parole. One of his workers, Fantine (Anne Hathaway), has a fight when the other workers discover she is sending money to her secret illegitimate daughter. When Valjean discovers that Fantine has resorted to prostitution to care for her daughter, Valjean swears to the dying mother that he will rescue and care for the girl himself. Valjean takes the young Cosette away from The Thénardiers (Sacha Baron Cohen & Helena Bonham Carter), and she grows into a fine young woman (Amanda Seyfried). Later Cosette falls in love with a young man named Marius (Eddie Redmayne) who is deeply involved in the French Revolution. It is through Marius's friend, Éponine (Samantha Barks) that Marius discovers Cosette. In the interest of keeping Marius alive for the sake of Cosette, Valjean aids the young rebels in their revolt while being ever vigilant to avoid Javert who remains hot on his trail.

When you see Les Misérables on stage you're watching singers act; but in this movie you're seeing actors sing. Several of the actors had some musical background, while others clearly did not. Russell Crow is a great actor, but not much of a singer. He sounds like he stifling a yawn while singing; but given his lack of vocal training, he hit the notes right and did a descent job. Eddie Redmayne's singing sounded nasal, and you could see his jaw and neck trembling with his vibrato. That's not necessarily bad, but it was distracting and an indicator of lack of vocal training. Hugh Jackman was phenomenal! He has Broadway experience and he did a great job singing this iconic role. I think the best performance was from Anne Hathaway. She did very well singing, but her emotional delivery simply blew me away.

Fans of the Broadway play will be head over heels in love with this movie version. As mentioned above, this is actors singing. The classic Broadway music is secondary to the story; the opposite of what happens on stage. I've heard these songs countless times before, but seeing an actual context for them made them much more poignant. In Les Misérables, we are shown close up images of the emotions and pain the characters are experiencing as the story progresses. I've heard “I Dreamed a Dream” before, but Hathaway's delivery made you really think about the lyrics and the pain the words are portraying. That whole song was filmed in one take; the camera doesn't move from her as she weeps and sings of broken dreams and abandoned love. It was powerful, and brought me to tears.

Possibly one of the things that made Les Misérables so good was that is was recorded live. Normally for a filmed musical, the individual actors sing the parts ahead of time in a studio before gathering together to film the scenes and lip-syncing to their own recorded voices. This causes the actors to have to make any acting decisions months before ever seeing their costars face to face. That removes some potential for the actors to act off of each other and generate emotional depth and realism in their delivery. For Les Misérables, the actors sung their lines as if it were the script and later had the music added. This allowed the actors to create a real sense of emotion and projection with their characters that has not been done before in a musical movie like this.

The sets were numerous and gorgeous. The bigger sets were probably enhanced with computer graphic additions, but it was so seamless. We got a feel for the French locations with sweeping exterior shots; it didn't feel confined to a stage. The historic costumes were so detailed and believable. The muskets fired at the barricade looked authentic and even the foley art was excellent.

There was very little actual spoken dialogue; the whole script was dependent upon the songs from the Broadway play. This made the interactions between characters seem unrealistic from time to time. The shots between songs were rushed; for example, one song ends and we see two or three short shots of the unconscious Marius being taken to a hospital, a doctor tending him, Marius walking again, and then suddenly he's at the old tavern where he and his friends used to hang out before starting in on his next song. That should take a lot of time, but we're thrown a couple of shots to suggest the passing of time in a matter of seconds to lead into the next song. While it's clear what has happened, it made the flow of the movie a bit choppy and rushed.

If you enjoy musicals, you will enjoy Les Misérables a lot. This was a powerful rendition of the Broadway classic, and it brings the story and characters to life on a level of reality that cannot be done on a stage. It's a classic story of broken dreams, unrequited love, passion, sacrifice, redemption, and the survival of the human spirit. I've never seen Les Misérables on stage, but this version does the story and music justice. If you don't enjoy musicals much on general principle, you'll likely be waving a white flag of exhausted defeat well before rebels wave the French tricolors. I think this was a beautiful movie and easily one of the best films of 2012. Not many movies can cause me to tear up multiple times, and Les Misérables certainly did. Go see it in theaters while you can. I recommend that you consider buying a copy for your home collection as well.

What is a Broadway Musical that you would love to see made into a major motion picture? Comment below and tell me why!

Big Fish Movie Review

Tim Burton films are kind of hit or miss. In recent years he's been doing little more than directing unnecessary remakes. These have served little purpose other than showcasing his unique and weird art style. Tim Burton isn't a bad director; his remakes are enjoyable enough, but have seemed uninspired lately. He's written and directed several films of his own design that were very good; Edward Scissorhands and Beetlejuice come to mind. Big Fish (2003) is much more grounded than his other recent films, and doesn't feature his signature art style as much.

William Bloom (Billy Crudup) never really knew his father, Edward (Albert Finney) outside of the tall tales he told Will about growing up, making his way in the world, and meeting his mother (Alison Lohman as a young woman, and Jessica Lange in older age). Will and his young wife, Josephine (Marion Cotillard), are summoned from their home in Paris to Will's old home in Alabama after Edward's health takes a turn for the worse. He's not expected to live much longer, so William and Josephine hold bedside vigil as the old man recollects elaborate tales of his youth (in which he is played by Ewan McGregor). Still doubting all the legend and folklore he heard growing up, William makes a journey to meet a mysterious woman (Helena Bonham Carter) from whom Edward had bought property. Even as Will meets people from his father's past, it's still impossible for him to separate fact from myth, and Will fears losing his father without ever really knowing him.

Tim Burton likes telling stories that play on creepiness coupled with cuteness. The Nightmare Before Christmas and Corpse Bride come to mind; they feature spindly characters with huge, sunken eyes; the sets are strewn with hard angles, spirals, and stripes. Even in live action films, these visuals appear regularly and are Tim Burton's signature style. Big Fish doesn't have this kind of style, and indeed, classic “Tim-Burton-isms” don't manifest very strongly in Big Fish. It almost seems like he was going in a new direction with Big Fish, though he quickly reverted back to his old style once Charlie and the Chocolate Factory came out. This refreshing change of pace gave the movie a much more grounded feel, in spite of the surreal visuals used in Edward's many tall tales.

Big Fish draws inspiration from a lot of fairy tale and myth. Not specifically stories you may have heard before, but similar enough to evoke thoughts of bedtime stories you may have heard as a child. This film helps us understand how important myths can be in our lives. They bring fun, adventure, and romance into our lives where it might otherwise not exist, and makes things more memorable and enjoyable. Particularly in the case of Big Fish, it shows us how as we approach the end of our lives, we depend on the legends we leave behind to give those lives meaning. We tell these stories not only to others, but to ourselves. Certainly there is truth in them, but the way our stories are told makes them special.

Burton weaves a very heartfelt story that will likely make us swoon along with the romance, and move us to the edge of our seats as Edward relates one of his stories. Burton likes to tell stories with visual effects, and he uses Edward's bizarre tales as a segue into visually rich flashbacks. They involve a witch whose glass eye reflects the way her visitors will die, and a circus run by a zany ringleader (Danny DeVito), making friends with Karl the Giant (Matthew McGrory), a catfish the size of a shark, and the time he parachutes onto the stage of a Red Army talent show in China where he meets Ping and Jing, a conjoined vocal duo sharing two legs. The visual effects are fantastic to behold, but they don't detract from the sweetness and sentimentality of the story.

Big Fish is a compelling look at father-son relationships, and the child coming to terms with the parent's mortality. As they try to make peace with one another, Edward instills the value of a good story in his son, and Will learns how myth makes life worth living. Edward is the kind of Grandpa you'd want to have tell tall tales to your children. The characters are so believable and even though they are at odds with one another, it is easy to relate to them.

Big Fish concludes with a touching tear-and-a-smile quality. You'll laugh and likely be choked up as the story unfolds. It's romantic, humorous, touching, sad, and happy. It's a new direction from Burton since he relies on powerful familial emotions rather than wacky visual splendor to sell the movie; he treads closer to the real world in Big Fish than he has in any of his other films. I would really like to see Burton do more movies like this one. I really feel that Burton allowed himself to shine with Big Fish since he goes out on a limb to do something he typically doesn't do. As a red flag to parents, there are a few brief scenes of nudity which are used artistically rather than sexually. I don't think it necessarily needs to be kept from younger viewers; especially since the intelligent way it is written wouldn't insult kid or adult audiences. Big Fish is a very good movie, I still get choked up every time I see it. This one is worth owning and seeing again and again.

What's your favorite Tim Burton movie? Why do you like it so much? Comment below and tell me why!

Fight Club Movie Review

Most dramas tend to center around philosophical discussion about life and what it means to be human, and feature characters displaying emotional depth. Good dramas are great, but generally don’t appeal much to masculine viewers who revel in violence and explosions. Yet all of that is present in David Fincher’s Fight Club (1999); it’s a drama for men.

Edward Norton stars as a depressed insomniac (named in the credits only as “Narrator”) who is just another cog in the world of big business. He hates his job and receives no sense of accomplishment from it. He tries to find fulfillment in creating the “perfect” apartment. His doctor refuses to give him medication for depression or insomnia, and the Narrator seeks out support group meetings for conditions that he doesn’t have. Here he is able to find a level of emotional release that allows him to sleep and function normally. One day on a business trip he meets Tyler Durden (Brad Pitt), a charming but rebellious soul who sells soap. Tyler puts no stock in the materialistic world, and believes that one can learn a great deal through pain, misfortune, and chaos. Later, Tyler challenges the Narrator to a fist fight and the Narrator finds that the the bare-knuckle brawling makes him feel more alive than he has in years. This ultimately leads to the two becoming friends and roommates who engage in informal fights once a week. More men join in the “fight club” and it becomes an underground sensation and a closely guarded secret among the participants. As the Narrator and Tyler bond through violence, things become strange when Tyler becomes involved with Marla Singer (Helena Bonham Carter) whom the Narrator met in the support groups and developed a love-hate relationship. Things get even stranger as the Narrator sees Tyler’s anti-establishment views become more and more extreme, eventually leading to vandalism and worse.

The premise in Fight Club is compelling. When we feel lost and dissatisfied with our job, the world, and the system society has set up, we feel dead inside. The idea of violence leading to personal fulfillment is unconventional, but interesting. The violence in the fight club doesn’t serve to promote or glorify physical combat, but for the participant to experience feeling in a society where they are otherwise numb. The fighting between these men strips away their fear of pain and their reliance on material signifiers of self-worth. Fight Club almost makes you want to get in a good fist fight so you can feel better about the world and your place in it.

Making a broad generalization about sex scenes in movies, they are typically included to develop the characters and a connection they are forming. There are plenty of scenes in Fight Club that achieve this sort of development between the characters; raw, naked emotions being exchanged, and connections and relationship are forming between men. But it’s done through brawl fighting, not sex. These fights are achieving the same thing that sex scenes normally achieve, but in a much more “masculine” way of bonding and showing emotion. Once again, it’s a drama for men.

Tyler Durden is such a unique character. He bucks the system, he has atypical values, and extremely different methods of finding enlightenment. He’s also a dangerous maniac whom you would dread to meet in real life. In one scene Tyler has a convenience store worker on his knees at gun point. After going through the man’s wallet and finding an expired college ID, Tyler asks what the man was attending college for and what he had dreamed of doing. Once Tyler gets an answer, he commands the man to go home, and threatens to kill the man in six weeks if he has not doing everything in his power to work towards his dream of becoming a veterinarian. Once the man is gone, Tyler says to the Narrator “Tomorrow will be the most beautiful day of Raymond K. Hessel's life. His breakfast will taste better than any meal you and I have ever tasted.” Tyler is sort of a likeable psychopath, along the same vein as the character Rorschach in Watchmen (2009).

Fight Club is a good movie with complex and interesting characters, some thought-provoking ideas, and some philosophical concepts dropped in unpredictable ways. As you may have guessed, there’s quite a bit of violence in this movie. There’s also some language and sex scenes (though not between men, as this review may have been unintentionally insinuated). It’s a drama for men; most women viewers probably wouldn’t enjoying it, and it’s too graphic for younger viewers. It’s still good and if you aren’t too put off by this kind of material, it worth seeing twice.

Can you think of another “manly” drama like Fight Club? What was it and what did you think about it? Comment below and tell me why.