The narrative critiques societal obsession with perfection and the cruelty embedded in beauty standards.
IF THE SHOE FITS…..This is the question first-time Norwegian director Emile Blichfeldt must answer in her exquisitely gory, hilarious take on the Cinderella story. In attempting to win the heart of the spoiled and ineffectual Mittel European Prince Julian, our titular heroine (brilliantly played by Lea Myren) suffers through the most hideous body sculpting indignities, many of which are forced upon her by her scheming mother (Ane Dahl Torp) in cahoots with an effete, sadistic proto-plastic surgeon, appropriately named Dr. Esthetique, who Adam Lundgren gleefully plays.
However, as Sondheim showed us in “Into the Woods,” these fairy tales are already steeped in iniquity, and Cinderella (Thea Sofie Loch Naess), with access to the spirit of her dead mother, is always a step (sorry!) ahead. Walking a high wire between horror and comedy, Blichfeldt tone never falters. Gore and laughter have rarely been such easy bedfellows, and there is also a delicious lesbian subplot.
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