CINDERELLA
Director: Kenneth Branagh
Cert: U Running time: 113 mins
From the makers of Thor (same director, composer, and director of photography) comes a similarly heartfelt, visually impressive fantasy film, Cinderella.
The heroine doesn’t possess any superpowers, unless kindness, courage, love, forgiveness, and the like count, in which case it’s every bit as valid a tale of good triumphing over evil.
The film is respectful to the Cinderella mythology, and has a refreshing sincerity to it. Before Cinderella's mother (Hayley Atwell) dies, she tells her daughter to ‘have courage and be kind’. When Cinderella (Lily James) grows up, she continues to try and live by these values, even when her father (Ben Chaplin) dies too, and she’s mistreated by her stepmother (Cate Blanchett) and stepsisters (Sophie McShera and Holliday Grainger).
She meets the charming Prince, Kit (Richard Madden), who believes in the same values. However, while he wants to marry for love, his dying father (Derek Jacobi) wants him to marry for advantage, forging a strong alliance to help keep the kingdom safe. Also, Cinderella's stepmother is determined that one of her daughters (not her stepdaughter) should marry the Prince.
Light and colour
The villainous characters are nonetheless given understandable motivations, making them more believable. The film is full of light and colour throughout, perhaps visually expressing the hope with which Cinderella views the world.
If marriage is a picture of Christ and the church, then the lengths to which the Prince goes to find the true owner of the glass slipper give us some very small idea of how much Jesus loves his people.
Cinderella is a wonderful film, unironically celebrating old-fashioned values such as love, kindness, and bravery. It's an uplifting, life-affirming visual treat.
The film is also preceded by an entertaining seven-minute Frozen short film, Frozen Fever, which features the familiar characters from Frozen, plus a new original song. It celebrates the value of expressing thankfulness and also serves as a neat reminder that we never go beyond the need for grace in the Christian life.
