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Category:    Home > Reviews > Horror > Supernatural > Thriller > Vampire > A Trap For Cinderella (2013/MPI/IFC Midnight DVD)

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


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