A
Trap For Cinderella
(2013/MPI/IFC Midnight DVD)
Picture:
B Sound: B- Extras: D Film: C-
A
Trap for Cinderella
is a play on words - since the film itself is a trap for the
audience. I like to compare it to a beautifully wrapped present that
when you open it, you find that there is nothing inside but hot air.
Meaning, the film is beautiful to look at in terms of cinematography
and production design - even the music isn't half bad. It has a
pretty looking cast that are easy on the eyes but keep you waiting
and waiting for something to happen and when it finally does... you
just kind of shrug your shoulders and pop the disc out of your player
unfulfilled.
Following
a house fire that killed her childhood friend and left her badly
burned, 20-year-old Micky (Tuppence Middleton) wakes up in a Swiss
clinic, suffering from amnesia. Remember nothing about the incident,
who she is, or who her friends are, she partners up with her wealthy
Aunt's assistant and travels to her childhood home in England. Soon,
she starts to piece together who she is and starts to reconnect with
old lovers and friends and starts to realize how terrible and flaky
of a person that she used to be. As she gets closer to rebuilding
her former self, she starts to uncover a deadly plot that led up to
the fire that led to her hospitalization and disfigurement as she
starts to remember her reconnection with her close childhood friend
Dominique, to whom almost drown her in a pool when she was younger.
This is where the plot starts to get muddled and we start jumping
back and forth between the present and the past and the childhood
past and so on.
Leading
up to the fatal event, the two old friends Dominique and Micky meet
up again in adult life and hit it off from the get-go. The two
become almost inseparable and there's a weird sort of obsession that
Dominique develops towards Micky that is slightly erotic and slightly
innocent. Though after Micky blows off Dominique for several guys
and leaves her hanging, she starts to realize that maybe she will
never find the lover in Mickey that she so desires. After the death
of Micky's wealthy Aunt, her Aunt's assistant teams up with Dominique
in a plan to kill Micky in the fire and take her face - in an attempt
for Dominique to become
her.
Yawn.
This
film echoes other better films like Spring
Breakers,
Vanilla
Sky,
and even a dash of Memento
but never quite achieves even half the interesting moments that those
better films had. It's hard to become invested in characters that
are hard to relate to and are just plain boring. There's one too many
unbelievable plot twists and the reveal at the end was pretty obvious
to me from the beginning. It's a shame because the director of the
film, Iain Softley (K-PAX)
is not what I would call untalented. As I mentioned earlier, there
are some nicely composed sequences and the overall style of the film
isn't necessarily the problem it's the story itself that leaves me
wanting more.
The
DVD standard definition, anamorphically enhanced transfer is up to
par with DVD preserving the film's original 1:85.1 aspect ratio and
giving us an adequate, lossy Dolby Digital 5.1 audio transfer.
Subtitles are also available in English SDH and in Espanol.
Special
Features are limited with cast
and crew interviews
and a trailer.
-
James Lockhart
www.vimeo.com/jamielockhart
