AVS Discussions
Movie and TV Discussion => Movie reviews => Topic started by: Barry on September 07, 2021, 07:17:33 PM
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Cinderella on Amazon Prime
It’s a tad difficult to give a non-spoiler review of Cinderella because you should know the plot by now. Netflix is put on a modern version of it following Disney’s modern version of it about five years ago.
I give this 2 ½ out of five stars, mostly because of the performers who were in it. This is sadly an example of trying to put a round box into a square hole. That is, Cinderella is an very old story of three girls trying to marry rich men. The girls have no profession and no future without marrying the right guy. Well, today we don’t see women the same way. So here we are given a modern woman, with modern desires and interests, trying to get involved with a prince to make her life better. So some of the pieces here just don’t fit, especially at the end. You simply can’t have a modern king ruling over an ancient kingdom. And for that matter an ancient king ruling over a Modern Family.
The movie makes an attempt to be funny and only occasionally succeeds. It tries very hard to be diverse, even giving us a fairy godmother who is a man. I don’t know whether they wanted us to think that he was a man, a gay man, or transgender man.
Camila Cabello plays Cinderella with great singing and dancing talent and she seemed like a nice girl. One day she will be a fine actress but she still on a learning curve here.
Pierce Brosnan plays the king with great relish and great attempts at humor that don’t always pan out.
Minnie Driver is somewhat underused here and comes out at the end as being a modern woman trapped in an ancient fairytale. This is the stuff that I don’t feel fits.
Finally, there is Idina Menzel who is just wonderful. It’s not just that she’s a fine actress but she is a wonderful singer and some of the best parts of the movie belong to her even though she’s the evil stepmother. Sadly they try to modernize her too, so she comes out somewhat sympathetic.
And the end of the movie just doesn’t fit, but I won’t spoil that for you.
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Barry,
Thanks for saving me the time of watching this. I actually liked the live action Disney film from a couple of years ago.