Review: ‘Cinderella’ - shiny happy footwear, for shiny happy people

Kenneth Branagh tired of directing films by the old bard, Shakespeare, so he turned to one much more relevant to contemporary American culture: Walt Disney. How does he capture the magic of the beloved animated classic “Cinderella” in live action? Mostly helicopter shots of CGI landscapes.

The opening sequence, set in young Cinderella’s two-parent, birthday cake of a home, is so tooth-achingly happy it’s a relief when her mother dies (possibly from overexposure to nitrous oxide).

The wishful stars of the piece are Lily James (Lady Rose from “Downton Abbey,” going from upstairs to downstairs and back again) and Richard Madden (Robb Stark from “Game of Thrones,” minus the neck scruff and plus some startling lapis color contacts). Cinderella and her Prince are almost as wide-eyed as their cartoon predecessors, especially in their woodsy meet-cute, added for this new telling.

Branagh does his best work drawing visual contrasts between Cinderella and Stepmother (Cate Blanchett). The former hums with pastel industriousness and the latter darkens rooms as a femme fatale. Blanchett wears black veils, insidious golds and envious greens-she resembles the tail of a peacock that disguises the hood of a king cobra. She’s not given enough verbal ammo, but Stepmother has glamour and Cinderella has a child’s idea of glamour.

Helena Bonham Carter is fairly glossed over as Fairy Godmother, but does give Cinderella both barrels of the bedazzling gun-blue butterfly ball gown, rhinestoned décolletage and a pumpkin-y spray tan.

The Cinderella story ends as happily as it must, though one notices the subtle coding about the Prince only wanting to see all the “maidens” of the Kingdom, cramming their feet into the four-inch heel of the glass “slipper.” Love wins, hate loses, and we hear the inevitable tinkling of the Disney theme, the one that sounds like cash registers opening.

“Cinderella” is showing at the Sonoma 9 Cinemas. Rated PG and running time is 1:52. Visit cinemawest.com.