Cinderella (2021) | Film Review

I love the story of Cinderella. I love the story, I love the Disney movie, and I always have time for a remake, so I was always going to watch this movie. 

This modern musical-take on the classic fairytale sees Cinderella (Camila Cabello) as an ambitious, aspiring business owner who tries to make her dreams come true while under the thumb of her step-mother. But will things change when she meets Prince Robert (Nicholas Galitzine)?

I'm struggling with this. I don't want to say that this is a bad movie, because I know some people will really enjoy it. But from my point of view, there are many other Cinderella movies that are much better than this one.

From the start, I couldn't tell whether the film was supposed to be taken seriously or not. I just couldn't work it out.

I was confused about the time period, whether this was supposed to be modern, or old-fashioned. I think this would have been better if the film had either been completely modern (including the clothing and location), or if the songs have been older. 

The film uses a lot of covers of songs, with maybe one or two originals, but the film doesn't play one song that was made more than a couple of years ago. It felt really jarring.

Speaking of the songs, it felt like the filmmakers cared more about using recognisable songs than making sure that the songs actually fit the narrative of the film. For example, there's a scene where Prince Robert is talking about not wanting to get married, and then he starts singing 'Somebody to Love' by Queen. It did

n't make sense for him to sing about wanting someone to love after having a rant about not wanting to fall in love. None of the covers really worked.

There are a lot of recognisable actors in the film, including Idina Menzel, Pierce Brosnan, Minnie Driver, and Billy Porter, and every single one of those actors was underused and wasted.

I am particularly upset about the stepsisters, played by Maddie Baillio and Charlotte Spencer. We barely saw them, but I actually preferred them as characters to Cinderella, and I would have loved to see more of them.

In contrast, there was absolutely no chemistry between Cinderella and the Prince. I didn't feel like they were in love at all, and that's kind of the basis for the whole story. For being the two main characters, they were quite 2-dimensional.  

And then there was the singing. They included a few strong singers in the film and didn't really use their voices that much (including Beverley Knight. Why hire Beverley Knight and not let her sing?), but the voices that they did use were a bit weak. It's not a soundtrack that I particularly want to listen to. However, I will say that Nicholas Galitzine has a great voice, and he was a great part of the film.

Overall, I didn't like the film, and I probably won't watch it again. As I said, there are better Cinderella movies to see. And if you're looking for a good Cinderella soundtrack, I have been listening to the official cast recording of Andrew Lloyd Webber's Cinderella, on Spotify, and some of the songs on that are incredible. Give that a listen if you need some new Cinderella-inspired music.

2.5/10