The new film will do a job for its target audience of young teenagers\u00a0but has limited appeal for general audiences. <\/p>
By Patrick Cremona\n \t\t<\/p>
Published: Wednesday, 01 September 2021 at 12:00 am<\/p>
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Describing a new film as \u201cnot as bad as the viral video of James Corden stopping traffic and enthusiastically thrusting at a car might suggest\u201d is probably the very definition of damning with faint praise. Yet that\u2019s about as fair a summary of Kay Cannon\u2019s knowingly cheesy reworking of Cinderella as can be given: it\u2019s not a masterpiece by any stretch \u2013 and indeed it\u2019s often intensely irritating \u2013 but it could easily have been a lot, lot worse.<\/p>\n
The film stars Camila Cabello as the titular princess who, as ever, finds herself an outcast in the house she shares with her wicked stepmother (Idina Menzel) and odious step-sisters (Maddie Baillio and Charlotte Spencer). For the most part, the narrative sticks fairly closely to the well-worn tale, albeit with a couple of notable exceptions: this<\/em> Cinderella certainly ain\u2019t going to swat aside her dreams at the first sign of romantic interest from a glamorous prince, while her fairy godmother is replaced by a sassy godparent in the shape of Tony-award winning actor Billy Porter.<\/p>\n Meanwhile, the cast also includes Pierce Brosnan and Minnie Driver as the King and Queen, while there\u2019s also a surprisingly large amount of faces from the UK comedy scene \u2013 including Romesh Ranganathan, James Acaster, Rob Beckett, and Ben Bailey-Smith, the latter of whom delivers a handful of original raps as the Town Cryer.<\/p> This being a musical, there are several large-scale song-and-dance numbers \u2013 most of them covers of well-known pop hits \u2013 which ensure it is always a lively affair, even if some of those songs can be a little cringeworthy to sit through. At times this Cinderella resembles a Disney Channel movie from the 2000s, at others it\u2019s more like a high school pantomime with an A-list cast, but it\u2019s a colourful and spirited production and for its intended target audience \u2013 namely young teenagers and Camila Cabello super-fans \u2013 it\u2019s sure to tick all the right boxes.<\/p>\n For anyone outside of that demographic, however, the film will probably be of limited appeal. One or two of the jokes might raise a chuckle \u2013 including a rant from Princess Gwen (Tallulah Grieve) about her father\u2019s insistence on buying more catapults \u2013 \u00a0and there\u2019s a certain amount of fun to be had with the more hammy, scenery-chewing performances from the likes of Brosnan, but beyond that, there\u2019s not an awful lot to keep general audiences engaged or entertained.<\/p>\n\n The film is also full of very obvious flaws: there\u2019s a distinct lack of noticeable chemistry between Cinderella and Prince Robert (Nicholas Galitzine) for instance, while several of the scenes are hampered by embarrassingly stilted dialogue which can make the whole thing feel decidedly amateurish. Meanwhile the progressive messaging, though well-intentioned, is delivered in a rather on-the-nose fashion, while at one point there\u2019s a brief scene where James Corden\u2019s face appears atop a CGI mouse\u2019s body \u2013 a sight almost as nightmarish as the aforementioned viral flash mob.<\/p>\n Originally intended for a theatrical release, Cinderella will instead open exclusively on Amazon Prime Video<\/a>, and to be honest, streaming is probably a natural home for it. It\u2019s not brilliant, and it\u2019s certainly disposable, but for better or worse, it largely achieves what it sets out to do.<\/p>\n Cinderella is released on Amazon Prime Video on Friday 3rd September 2021. Looking for something else to watch? Check out our\u00a0TV Guide<\/a>\u00a0or visit our dedicated\u00a0Movies<\/a>\u00a0hub for the latest news.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n The new film will do a job for its target audience of young teenagers\u00a0but has limited appeal for general audiences. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":0,"template":"","categories":[1],"acf":[],"uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":false,"thumbnail":false,"medium":false,"medium_large":false,"large":false,"1536x1536":false,"2048x2048":false},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"importmanagerhub@sprylab.com","author_link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/author\/importmanagerhubsprylab-com\/"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"The new film will do a job for its target audience of young teenagers\u00a0but has limited appeal for general audiences.","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rss_feed\/3832"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rss_feed"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/rss_feed"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/24"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3832"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3832"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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