For those of us of a certain age, Cruella de Vil is one of Disney’s most memorable – and least likeable – villains. Having had the pleasure of playing a classic villain on stage in a Christmas show – and being able to relish the response of the children in the audience (including one who spotted me without make-up while in a shop a short while later) – I enjoy a good villain at least as much as the rest and possibly more.
But while, as an adult filmgoer I almost had the hots for Antony Hopkins as Hannibal Lector, killing and skinning dogs to make a coat is simply beyond the pale. Though to add from a personal perspective, it always helps for me if a villain is a little bit arch; I give you 2003’s Underworld, and Bill Nighy as Victor, and Alan Rickman’s Sheriff of Nottingham as further examples.
Perhaps it was the trailer that made me want to see this – or partly the lure of being able to, once again, actually be in a cinema – or a bit of both, but after a first post-lockdown cinema visit last week made me feel comfortable in the environment (it was Peter Rabbit 2, in case you’re curious), this was too tempting to miss.
An origin story for de Vil, it is set primarily in the 1960s and ’70s, allowing for a ridiculously good soundtrack and some wonderful costumes, and it tells the story of how Estella becomes Cruella and, along the way, invents punk.
It looks wonderful, but it’s also a cracking story of being different – of being an outsider who is expected to conform and the soul-shredding struggle of trying to do that.
That soundtrack? It includes the Stones, Bowie, Nina Simone, The Clash, Queen, Judy Garland, Nancy Sinatra, Blondie and Ken Dodd, plus a new song from Florence + the Machine, and is a major force for why the film works (by and large).
The performances are delightful. Emma Stone as the eponymous Cruella is wonderful: arch – yet far, far more subtle than that might suggest (hint: arch can also be subtle). Emma Thompson as the Baroness, her nemesis, is a wonderful sparring partner, visually channelling Holly Golightly in places, and. ore than visually channelling Meryl Streep as Miranda Priestly/definitely-not Anna Wintour in The Devil Wears Prada in others.
Mark Strong is excellent – and also very subtle – as the Baroness’s butler, while Joel Fry and Paul Walter Hauser provide the perfect – and not obviously simplistic – level of support as the Dickensian child crooks who ‘adopt’ Cruella’, only to end up being led by her.
Oh ... and the dogs are great too.
There is a criticism, though – and that is that is too long by around 15 minutes. Director Craig Gillespie should have knocked 15 minutes off the 134-minute run time – without losing any scenes. There is no bad scene, but it should all have done with just that bit more pace.
However, back to the pluses: it looks utterly fabulous and has a pleasing darkness, but with some laughs too. This is Disney channelling DC’s predilection for the dark, but also understanding Marvel’s use of humour – and thereby arguably handing DC a lesson (though trailers for July’s The Suicide Squad suggests that DC might have finally latched on to why Marvel is streets ahead of them in such stakes).
It’s dark in a good way – arguably a Joker for a younger audience. And I cannot give it greater praise than that, even with that quite serious pacing fault
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