The Independent Voice of Southern Methodist University Since 1915

The Daily Campus

The Daily Campus

The Independent Voice of Southern Methodist University Since 1915

The Daily Campus

The Independent Voice of Southern Methodist University Since 1915

The Daily Campus

‘Cinderella’ might just be guy-friendly, or at least this review is

cinderella.jpg
(Courtesy of Disney)

WARNING: This is an article about a fairytale. If you are a chick-flick-loving woman, then read away. If you are a closet chick-flick-loving man, then read away (in private) I got your back.

There are some things that we just can’t get enough of. We love cupcakes, so we go to Sprinkles more than we should. We love Ryan Gosling and Rachel McAdams, so we watch “The Notebook” more than we should. We love everything but homework, so we do everything besides homework more than we should.

But there is one sub-genre of film that has continuously captured people’s attention for many generations (and set women’s expectations inconceivably high for relationships). I’m talking about fairytales, people. However, one sugary sweet story transcends them all. Watch out men. Cinderella’s back.

In the new rendition of Cinderella’s classic tale, her story stays the same, but the visual representation of the narrative brings Cinderella to life like never before. Now before I get into my thoughts about the film, I feel like a simple refresher of Cinderella’s tale in layman’s terms would benefit those of you (hello, guys) that have forgotten about the story or perhaps intentionally blocked it from your memory. Here is perhaps the most masculine recap of the famous fairytale.

Basically, Ella, who already lost her mom as a kid, loses her dad as a young woman and gets stuck with her wicked stepmother and idiotic stepsisters. Now, Ella is super hot and sweet, so when she runs into the Prince, he’s like, “Oh hey, girl, I see you,” and then decides to throw a ball to find his “wife” (aka meet up with Cinderella again. Such a prince move.)

Long story short, Cinderella gets a makeover from her fairy godmother, shows up looking all spiffy at the ball, runs away from the ball to travel by pumpkin, and leaves a glass heel behind that the Prince uses to track her down. If you don’t understand some of what I just said, that’s actually a good sign. Once the Prince finally finds Cinderella and ensures the slipper fits, they fall in love, get married, get frisky, and live happily ever after (so the get frisky part is mostly inference here. This is not a “Wolf of Wall Street” type of film.) That’s Cinderella in a nutshell.

Now considering the Cinderella tale is perhaps the most overdone narrative in film, I was interested to see why exactly Disney decided to do it again this year. To my surprise as a fairytale cynic, this “Cinderella” exceeded my low expectations by a mile. The cinematography was beautiful. The cast was genuine. The story was refreshed. And most importantly, the potential cheesiness was suppressed. Never did I feel the film was trying too hard to elicit an emotional reaction or cater to the overly squishy romantics out there (You do you.) Though this story has been around forever, the whole film felt fresh.

In “Cinderella,” Lily James leads the way as the Disney princess with pure grace and captivating elegance. Perhaps my favorite evil stepmother I’ve seen, Cate Blanchett knocked her part out of the park and brought a chilling edge to such a sweet tale. Cinderella’s love-struck suitor, played by Richard Madden, had bright blue eyes, an inviting smile, and a slight air of ignorance as the Prince. In other words, he was perfect. The rest of the cast shined as well and helped create this interesting rendition of a story that continues to live on.

So whether you are a woman or a macho man, give “Cinderella” a chance. You know you can never get tired of looking at Prince Charming and a really hot blonde. Well, maybe just one or the other. Hey, everybody wins.

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