Isac Calmroth as the prince and Lea Myren as Elvira in the dramedy, “The Ugly Stepsister.”
Beauty is savagely taken to task in ‘Ugly Stepsister’
The story of Cinderella undergoes a literal makeover in “The Ugly Stepsister,” newcomer Emilie Blichfeldt’s fractured fairy tale in which the lone villain is society’s unattainable standard of beauty. Bold, clever and more than just a little bit aggrieved, Blichfeldt has a blast thoroughly satirizing the ridiculous extremes women are willing to go to attract the attention of a wealthy, feckless Prince Charming.
Her surrogate is Elvira, a gangly teenager with braces, an irregular nose, sparse eyelashes and enormous feet. As played brilliantly by Blichfeldt’s fellow rookie, Lea Myren, Elvira is also as soft in the head as she is soft in the middle. She devours romance novels and dreams of being swept off those titanic tootsies by a stinking-rich prince who will enable her to live happily ever after. And nothing would please her money-grubbing mother, Rebekka (Ane Dahl Torp), more now that she has discovered that her newly wed and recently deceased aged husband has left her broke with an extra mouth to feed in stepdaughter, Agnes (Thea Sofie Loch Næss), a goddess sure to turn the head of any young chap.
True to the “Cinderella” legend, there’s no love lost between Rebekka and Agnes, especially after the former catches wind of the latter fornicating in the barn with the handsome, well-endowed stable boy. After all, like all Disney princesses, Cinderella is expected to be a virgin, right?
Not a dilemma in that department for Elvira, the very definition of plain. But it’s nothing that can’t be solved with a little rudimentary rhinoplasty, a pair of gruesomely sutured-on eyelashes (ouch!) and a weight-reduction plan that involves swallowing baby tapeworms. At least that’s the hope after Rebekka sends her daughter off to finishing school between appointments with a sadistic plastic surgeon honing his skills without the benefit of anesthesia.
Success will be determined “four full moons” hence when the foppish Prince Julian (Isac Calmroth) is set to select his bride, a la TV’s “The Bachelor,” during a cattle call in which all the kingdom’s eligible belles dutifully line up in their finest attire, flaunting their assets, in a bid to be chosen as his princess.
If nothing else, old-school Disney has taught us that this sexist nonsense is not only acceptable, it’s downright customary. Would we not be aghast if the prince chose the least attractive maiden? This is the preconditioned mindset from which Blichfeldt reimagines “Cinderella,” hilariously skewering the centuries-old and highly popularized Grimm fairy tale. So embedded in our zeitgeist, it has established a singular construct of beauty to which many young women and girls seek to conform.
It’s a macabre story, and Blichfeldt aptly presents it as such, complete with Gothic elements and a darkly sinister bent, much like the Oscar-nominated “The Substance,” a body-horror dramedy that with “The Ugly Stepsister” would make for an appropriate double bill. Interestingly, both films were written and directed by European women fed up with impossible ideals concerning age and appearance, and who underscore the preposterousness of it all with a highly appealing style of pitch-black comedy. You laugh until you cry.
It’s impressive what both filmmakers have accomplished on minuscule budgets. The final products look like they emptied the bank on aesthetics, particularly for Blichfeldt, who had the added onus of delivering a satisfying and engaging period piece set some time in the 17th century, albeit with an anachronistic, yet fitting, electronic score by Kaada and Vilde Tuv. But your first clue that Blichfeldt is playing by her own rules of time and place are the very modern orthodontic braces worn by Elvira. From that point on, you’re assured this won’t be your Uncle Walt’s “Cinderella.”
It’s much truer to the Grimm original, including the lopping off of a toe or two in a desperate quest to fit the infamous “glass slipper.” Yes, this “Cinderella” is not for the squeamish. It’s as bloody in the literal sense as it is bloody good. Heaving up a massive tapeworm, anyone?
Yes, I dare anyone not to cover their eyes during some of the movie’s most grisly parts. And you thought “The Substance” was disturbing. It’s got nothing on this baby, which, as is the case with Elvira’s younger sister, Alma (Flo Fagerli), has you terrified by all you see. And I’m not just talking about the movie, but also what’s happening in the here and now. It effectively takes a scalpel to what constitutes “pretty” by penetrating the skin and cutting deep.
Movie review
The Ugly Stepsister
Rated: Not rated
Cast: Lea Myren, Thea-Sofie Loch Næss, Ane Dahl Torp, Flo Fagerli and Isac Calmroth
Director: Emilie Blichfeldt
Writer: Emilie Blichfeldt
Runtime: 105 minutes
Where: In theaters April 18 (limited)
Grade: B+
