Call me a curmudgeon but I prefer my fairy tales pure. Recent action-hero pics like “Jack the Giant Slayer” and “Snow White and the Huntsman” have proved bloated bores. And though the feminist revisionism of such vehicles as “Malificent,” “Frozen,” and “Ever After” may be admirable, it’s like slapping Band-Aids over these regressive myths’ tumors. Better to let fairy tales be fairy tales — and follow up with our children afterward lest they confuse them for reality.
“Cinderella,” Disney’s latest live-action offering, is back to basics in the best of ways. Written by Chris Weitz (“About a Boy”) and directed by Kenneth Branagh as if it were a studio movie made in Hollywood’s Golden Age, it contains no winks at the grownups nor any pop culture references to hip the joint up. (A preceding “Frozen” short provides both.) In fact, this update on the 1950 animated classic seems to target tweens; its slow-moving grace and emphasis on morality and love rather than magic and musical numbers did not sit well with the small kids in the screening I attended. (The rest of us may watch in peace.) Continue Reading →