Growing up watching an iconic character that you used to despise as a child but love as an adult does raise a question. Maybe it's because now you understand them. OR..maybe it's because they're actually good.
Cruella is a 2021 crime comedy film that tells the story of Estella Miller (Emma Stone), an ambitious and young aspiring fashion designer, living a low life as a thief in London with her two loyal friends. While paving her way to success, she bumps into the narcissistic and renowned fashion designer Baroness von Hellman (Emma Thompson) whom she later works for. Connecting the past and the present, Estella leads the way to the discovery of her future notorious identity: Cruella.
By using the childhood memory of Cruella de Vile that we know from the 101: The Dalmatians (1996), of course there's an undeniable sense of eccentricity that is tied to her image. But what's admirable about Emma Stone's version is that she didn't just simply pull "acting weird" and call it a day. When starting out as Estella, Emma had succeeded in portraying a little figure who constantly got into trouble and was somehow naive. Full of risk? Yes. But also bland. But when the villain (Baroness) being thrown into the plot, she peeled a layer of herself that's been buried in the past and seamlessly transformed into her alter-ego Cruella. That's when it was presented to us now that..she IS the trouble. The Estella that we're unimpressed with, in the beginning now had a new appearance, new demeanour, and most importantly a new mission. Emma Stone made the shift looks graceful and actually did a decent British accent compared to her performance in The Favourite (2018). Talking about growth!
Then there's Baroness von Hellman. Well... Emma Thompson is Emma Thompson. To be able to say so little about her performance actually speaks a volume. Every single movie I've seen her in, she had always claimed the ownership of her character. Her portrayal as a charismatic but villainous figure in Cruella simply took our whole attention away as if there's nothing else worth seeing in the movie. Yes, that is true that she is the villain. But is it right to love her? To me, her voice tone and gaze were the top two intimidating traits that she probably took on the most when morphing into Baroness. It's almost...hair-rising. In all shallowness of choice of words, I would say that Emma Thompson just never disappoints the audience and that is probably because she doesn't know how to! Her performance in this movie simply is a gentle reminder of why she is a living legend and a Dame.
When I say "there's nothing else worth seeing in this movie", I hope you took it with a grain of salt. Because every single aspect of visual in this movie is absolutely worth it! Starting out by calling the costume design 'great' might be an understatement. It's magnificent. It didn't only successfully represented the characters' intense images, but also the core of the haute couture fashion world that this movie revolves around. As the pattern cutter and costume engineer for film Kirsten Fletcher took on her Instagram account, the 40ft long train of dress for Cruella that she and her team made to seamlessly trail behind a dumpster truck is "certainly the largest one I've had to engineer to date". So if the idea of witnessing an immense effort put into one of the many gorgeous designs doesn't intrigue you, I don't know what will!
To put it short, Cruella is an all-rounder, visual feast, from start to finish. Do yourself a favour and watch this movie wherever it is available in your respective country. Happy watching and see you next time!
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