Cinderella

"Midnight is just the beginning."

2015 1h 45m EN

👍

6.8

SOLID

🍅

83%

FRESH

👌

METACRITIC

⭐

6.9

IMDB

★6.8TMDB · 7,521🍅83%Rotten Tomatoes●67Metacritic★6.9IMDB · 204,139

RomanceFantasyFamilyDrama

Synopsis

Spoiler shield

When her father unexpectedly passes away, young Ella finds herself at the mercy of her cruel stepmother and her daughters. Never one to give up hope, Ella's fortunes begin to change after meeting a dashing stranger in the woods.

“Midnight is just the beginning.”

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Cast

Lily James
Cinderella
Cate Blanchett
Stepmother, Lady Tremaine
Richard Madden
Prince
Stellan Skarsgård
Grand Duke
Holliday Grainger
Anastasia Tremaine
Sophie McShera
Drizella Tremaine
Derek Jacobi
King
Helena Bonham Carter
Fairy Godmother

Credits

Behind the camera

Director: Kenneth Branagh
Writers: Chris Weitz, Charles Perrault
Languages: English
Countries: United Kingdom, United States of America

Want more? Switch to Cinephile mode in the header for DP, composer, budget, box office, production companies, keywords, and release history.

Did you know?

Fun facts 🍿

1 / 8

MONEY

Did you know

Mid-budget at $95M — the now-extinct middle tier of Hollywood.

MoodPlayr · trivia#01

2 / 8

MONEY

Did you know

Made its money back 5.7× over at the box office.

MoodPlayr · trivia#02

3 / 8

ERA

Did you know

Released 11 years ago.

MoodPlayr · trivia#03

4 / 8

WORLD

Did you know

International production across 2 countries: United Kingdom, United States of America.

MoodPlayr · trivia#04

5 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Directed by Kenneth Branagh, shot by Haris Zambarloukos. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.

MoodPlayr · trivia#05

6 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Original score by Patrick Doyle. Worth a dedicated listen after — most great films lose half their impact without the score.

MoodPlayr · trivia#06

7 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Editor Martin Walsh shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.

MoodPlayr · trivia#07

8 / 8

CAST

Did you know

Lily James and Cate Blanchett and Richard Madden carry the top of the cast.

MoodPlayr · trivia#08

Cinephile deep dive

The take

Kenneth Branagh directs. Haris Zambarloukos behind the camera. Patrick Doyle scores. Martin Walsh cuts. Made its budget back several times over at the box office. Produced in United Kingdom, United States of America. Dialogue in English.

Trivia

Things worth knowing

1Mid-budget at $95M — the now-extinct middle tier of Hollywood.
2Made its money back 5.7× over at the box office.
3Released 11 years ago.
4International production across 2 countries: United Kingdom, United States of America.
5Directed by Kenneth Branagh, shot by Haris Zambarloukos. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.
6Original score by Patrick Doyle. Worth a dedicated listen after — most great films lose half their impact without the score.
7Editor Martin Walsh shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.
8Lily James and Cate Blanchett and Richard Madden carry the top of the cast.
9Marketing tagline: "Midnight is just the beginning.".
10IMDB entry: tt1661199 — still the authoritative cross-reference for credits and trivia.
11Classified under 16 themes, including "magic", "kingdom", "fairy tale", "prince".

The technical file

Cinematography: Haris Zambarloukos
Original score: Patrick Doyle
Editing: Martin Walsh
Production design: Dante Ferretti
Costume design: Sandy Powell
Makeup / hair: Wakana Yoshihara
VFX supervisor: Patrick Ledda
Sound: Mike Dowson
Stunt coordinator: Steve Dent
Runtime: 105 min · 1h 45m
Aspect ratio (typical): 1.37:1 (Academy)
Status: Released
Budget: $95,000,000
Box office: $543,514,353
Return: 572% of budget
Original language: EN
Certification (US): PG
IMDB: Cinderella (2015)
Rotten Tomatoes: 83% 🍅 Fresh
Metacritic: 67/100
IMDB rating: 6.9/10 · 204,139 votes
MPAA: PG

Awards

Nominated for 1 Oscar. 10 wins & 40 nominations total

Saturn Award for Best Fantasy Film

Individual records documented via Wikidata; the summary above may count more.

Also by

Kenneth Branagh

Stills · wallpapers

Selected frames

Full-resolution frames — open one to save it as a wallpaper.

Wallpaper

Trailers & featurettes

Watch the pieces

Community reviews

What people are saying

Reno2015-07-30
★ 7/10
Probably the best live-shot Cinderella I've seen. Disney has done it again. Everybody knows Cinderella story and what this film gave was as it is with the help of modern CGI works. When I heard about the Disney's live-shot version is getting ready, I had a serious doubt, but not anymore. Nowadays, the filmmakers know how to pull it off a big budget movie with ease. Especially from Hollywood, if one market fails, it will raise in another as the recent example was 'Age of Extinction'. I am glad this movie met a great success despite it was not a surprise material as a story, but was as the quality of product. The movie runs nearly for 100 minutes, that does not feel too long as the narration had a wonderful pace. Everything was awesomely handled by the director of 'Thor'. It's a new era of the live-shot movies, which borrows the stories from the fairytales, folklore and classical animations. Recent 'Maleficent' was one of the great examples and this film as well enters the book of triumph. Lily James was very good, I haven't seen her much, because she's kind of a new actress in the spotlight. She's cute and adorable, I love to see her in many movies in the future. While Cate Blanchett, I never had any disbelief in her and she delivered it perfectly. An ideal movie for a family to watch at the weekend. I think children would love it, so at least watch it for them, with them. 7/10
Kamurai2020-09-09
★ 6/10
Good watch, could watch again, and can recommend. I'm honestly concerned that this isn't a movie that anyone is going to watch again and again, but it's a solid watch, and a definite improvement over the 1950 animated classic, though I can't say this touches "Ever After" for me. The original story was somewhat lacking, but had fantastic animation for the time, along with voice acting and writing parallel with the movies of its time. I'm somewhat sad to say that is a fair difference in quality compared to modern standards. Disney very much kept this dumbed down for younger audiences, and I expect them to have more fun with scenes like "lizard footman eats a fly", but in the very least they steered away from realistic cg talking animals (a creepy factor in many of the live action remakes), though they do make a very specific nod to it at the beginning of the movie. While I do think they managed to improve on almost ever facet of the original, it certainly isn't without flaws. The casting is all over the place, which, I'm sure, affected the odd character development. Oddly, the less important characters, the men, in this case, are fine, I really have zero to say other than I rather like Nonso Anozie in anything he's in, and I did think the bit about "Kit" was a rather inspired thing. I understand that Kate Winslet has had a villainous kick the past few years, and she plays "stuck up snoot" very well, but seeing Helena Bonham Carter come in to give us "the fairy godmother who ain't got time for dat" really makes me wonder if they just weren't paying her enough to care. It would have made more sense to let Winslet elevate the fairy godmother (one of the only things that really wasn't) and let Carter goes Bellatrix Lestrange as the Wicked Stepmother. Sophie McShera did a marvelous job of making me hate her character, and Holliday Grainger kept making me see Katherine Heigl if we could keep her away from tanning beds, so they both did a marvelous job as wicked stepsisters (honestly, probably the best performances of the movie). For some reason though, they made a very strange decision to make all the wicked women gingers, though not with a very convincing dye job. I don't know if it was supposed to be representative of their tacky fashion and the ability to dye hair at the time, or if Disney really thinks gingers don't have a soul, but it was a blaring message, if illegible. What makes me think that they don't care at all is Lily James. She's lovely, she did a good job with the role as written, and I'm dying to see her in anything else to see if any of the oddities were her, or she's done just as good as Winslet with the roles they were given. Cinderella is traditionally a "fairest in the land" look, given that it's the middle of Europe, I imagine northern was exotic once upon a time, or at least certain people thought so she is traditionally very blonde and very fair. Lily James is neither (in this, despite some of the posters), so I thought they were taking a more Germanic look with a more honey colored hair....but it is also very oddly colored, and perhaps we wouldn't have notice if it wasn't for her very prominent BLACK eyebrows (which I have nothing against, I actually think they're lovely) which would have been simple enough to die to match. Alternatively they could have abandoned blonde altogether (plenty of versions do). It is just very odd to spend millions of dollars to do something purposefully (and repetitively) to make it look like they don't care and objectively make their movie worse. Overall, it's this sort of attitude that seeps into the movie at different points. It could have been a masterpiece, but instead, everyone knows it's a guaranteed paycheck on the title alone and made something that ends up being rather average despite itself.
r96sk2020-11-14
★ 7/10
An improvement on Disney's past attempt from 1950. I do like the animated version from the studio, but this 2015 release of <em>'Cinderella'</em> makes for a more enjoyable experience in my eyes. Lily James and Richard Madden are smart choices to play Cinderella and Prince, while Cate Blanchett is impressive as the Stepmother. Helena Bonham Carter (Fairy Godmother), Stellan Skarsgård (Grand Duke) and Nonso Anozie (Captain) are also noteworthy. The premise has a few changes, the ending plays out slightly differently compared to the '50 production - to positive effect. It also makes the nastiness of Blanchett's character unmistakably clear, I actually felt hatred for her - which wasn't the case, at least to the same extent, with the original. Good viewing.