A film directed by Craig Gillespie, written in part by Tony McNamara, starring Emma Stone and Emma Thompson, along with Paul Walter Hauser, Mark Strong and Kayvan Novak to name but a few of its stars, should by all accounts be one of my most anticipated films of the year. However this array of talent has been utilised to serve a live action prequel film explaining (but not really) how Cruella De Vil became one of the most iconic villains of all time. Now when one compares this film to the other live-action farces we’ve received in the past five years or so, one can seriously take note of the impact all this talent has had on the feature, but the film still is a horribly overlong, frequently enjoyably camp, film that tries to be at once a devilish film for adults whilst still having to fall into the torrid trappings of the current Disney machine. I liked lots in Cruella, but I also disliked an awful lot more, and I can’t exactly comment that a balance was present.

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The frequent argument made for films such as this, despite their repeated adult ideations is that they are “just for kids”, and yet so many times Cruella is held back by this fact. The classic Cruella cigarette holder is even missing due to Disney’s current “no cigarette” rule for its properties. All in all Cruella does however have an awful lot to offer us, despite its many flaws (primarily plot related and pacing based, in particular an excruciatingly lengthy prologue with some absolutely abysmal child performances) – in particular the film does boast a stellar villain turn from Emma Thompson, relishing every moment she can to do the absolute most with the absolute least possible. Her character of the Baroness is certainly the films biggest highlight, with a supporting cast that similarly offers us multiple enjoyable turns from performers I’ve enjoyed the work of previously. But for every Hauser who’s given plenty of great comedic beats to enjoy, there’s many any actor who is frankly just given nothing to do. Mark Strong for instance here just reprises the kind hearted gentlemen from Kingsman, just without the Scottish accent. For the sheer unjustified length of this film, one would think that every character was given at least a scene for them to shine, that unfortunately is just not the case and repeatedly certain characters are betrayed by the trappings of the origin story concept of the film. The origin story itself here is given some service, but frankly leans far too much into making the character rootable for and effectively nice and understandable. To put it plainly by the time this film finishes, you don’t believe that a decade will pass and she’s skinning dogs. If you want to give us a villain’s origin story, you’d be far better off giving us the villain, rather than some water-downed good-hearted version.

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The costumes in the film are truly sublime of course however and are in many ways the films best aspect, Jenny Beaven’s work leads to some of the films best visuals in fact and gives us more than a few very enjoyable costume based set pieces – however when we do eventually get a Cruella runway, it is overly made ugly by an abundance of camera movement, a very dull performance from one of the films stars John McRea singing a song about wanting to be a dog. For a film so repeatedly painfully on the nose, it may seem odd that I’m requesting moments of more camp, but it seems to be that the film knew what it had in some departments, in particular the costume and Thompson, but however seemingly felt restrained to utilise them to their fullest capabilities. In a bizarre turn of events I have realised that I have just written 900 words of this review (having written the summary and P.S. first) and have failed to mention anything in particular about Emma Stone’s performance. Well, I guess that surmises it better than I ever could. To say the film is called Cruella and to say that Stone was actually pretty good in the role, and to say that I haven’t really thought about her once, is I guess to comment that the entire film does seem to succeed best when we are removed and with those around Cruella rather than with Cruella herself. I guess I could have just written a five word review instead simply stating that “Close is still on top”.

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An overlong 5/10 foray into a very enjoyable world filled with some good characters that just overstays its welcome something rotten. Both our Emma’s are wonderfully enjoyable and when the film leans into the camp that it can deliver so well, the film succeeds, however an over-focus upon dramatic plotting and emotional beats leads one to wonder what a more comedic version of this film would look like. One also frequently wishes the film to be fully for adults, for every wink and nod is far more enjoyable than the childish taming of this originally wonderfully viscous character. Cruella here is tamed and hence Cruella is tamed too, and is worse for it.

P.S. Once again I have to declare that having a film jam-packed with classic tracks does not a good soundtrack make. So frequently filmmakers fill their films with great songs just to work off the good will those incredible songs have already garnered. One could get into the films belief that its punk whilst still being a Disney machination filled with E.L.O and The Doors tracks, but that’s a different article. Yes, I love all of these songs, and yes, I was glad to hear them. But never because they enriched the film, and never because they underpinned already effective scenes. The film trusts these songs to make the motion for them. Perhaps an even more infuriating element to all this is that the film has a wonderful score by Nicholas Brittell, which I’d love to hear more of, in the actual body of the film that is.

-       -   Thomas Carruthers