Berlin Review: 'Cinderella' Directed By Kenneth Branagh, Starring Lily James, Richard Madden & Cate Blanchett
A fairytale so deeply embedded in the collective unconscious that it has given its name to a whole category of stories, the Cinderella myth has been cinematically retold, reimagined, recreated and riffed upon countless times. In fact, recently it has felt like the only thing you can do with such a cornball story is reimagine it, to make it relevant to a modern audience, and to address its fundamentally regressive gender politics. But now, tumbling sparkly-eyed into this world of irony, reappropriation and po-mo deconstruction, comes Kenneth Branagh's "Cinderella" a straight-up retelling of the tale for Disney. With no sheen of reflexivity, and no in-jokey admission of its hokiness to hide behind, can this non-ironic un-re-invention possibly work? Actually, yes it can, and does surprisingly well, by approaching the story with a sincerity and sweetness that defy cynicism, and by casting Cate Blanchett.
Fairytales are Disney's bread and butter, and "Cinderella"...