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Sparkling Cinders casts a spell: BRIAN VINER reviews Cinderella

By Brian Viner, Film Critic for the Daily Mail

Published: 20:38 EST, 19 March 2015 | Updated: 04:48 EST, 20 March 2015

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Cinderella (U)

Verdict: A ball!

Rating:

The backdrop is that vague mittel Europe of turreted castles and snowy peaks, but the costumes and interiors in Kenneth Branagh’s sparkling live-action Cinderella are classic Victoriana.

Lily James is fine in the title role, just overcoming the challenge of being preternaturally good and kind, but not boringly insipid.

If the film belongs to anyone, however, it is Cate Blanchett as the wicked stepmother, looking as though she could lacerate someone with her cheekbones.

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Lily James (pictured) is fine in the title role overcoming the challenge of being preternaturally good and kind, but not boringly insipid

Cinderella comes to life in new live-action movie trailer

I loved her entrance, sweeping imperiously into Cinderella’s affluent home as the new wife to her widowed father (Ben Chaplin).

Helena Bonham Carter has a ball, too, as the Fairy Godmother, playing for laughs the scene in which she gives Cinders a makeover that Gok Wan could only dream about.

Branagh knows how to throw in a cameo — notably Rob Brydon, playing the accident-prone court portrait painter — for the sake of nothing much apart from a laugh.

Ugly sisters Drizella (Sophie McShera) and Anastasia (Holliday Grainger) also strain and gurn like panto season veterans.

Above all, the film looks superb, with dazzling use of colour, especially when Cinderella arrives at the ball in a gown that will make little girls gasp and want to grow up to be Lily James.

Cinderella goes on general release next Friday, March 27.

If the film belongs to anyone it is Cate Blanchett (pictured right) as the wicked stepmother, looking as though she could lacerate someone with her cheekbones

Stars look glam at Cinderella world premiere in Berlin