I don't always start my own reviews by directing people elsewhere, but The Ugly Stepsister already has an excellent write-up from Christianne Benedict here. And you can stay subscribed to her blog for many great insights.
An ugly and violent take on the classic tale of Cinderella, The Ugly Stepsister is an astonishing and confrontational feature debut from writer-director Emilie Blichfeldt. It uses the template of the fairytale to explore the pressures on those who are judged by their femininity and beauty, but it also twists things in a way that brilliantly subverts the dynamic conjured up by the title.
Lea Myren plays Elvira, the fairly quiet and unappealing young woman who seems destined to keep living in the shade of her beautiful step-sister, Agnes (Thea Sofie Loch Næss). Elvira's mother, Rebekka (Ane Dahl Torp), sets out to change that, however, after the death of her husband means that their fate and fortune relies on Elvira transforming into someone who will capture the eye of Prince Julian (Isac Calmroth). A process of painful transformation begins that will affect Elvira's mind as much as her body.
Myren is fantastic in the central role, delivering a performance that shows her personality and demeanour changing in line with her physical changes. Næss is also very good, able to maintain a real presence throughout the film even as she is effectively sidelined for a large part of the second half of the film. She may not be in every scene, but her shadow looms over the unfolding events, as well as Elvira. Torp has some fun in the role of such a fiercely driven mother, becoming more and more desperate and ruthless as her and her daughter start to share the same insanity. Calmroth is fine, but the other one to really praise is Flo Fagerli, playing Alma, the OTHER stepsister who keeps herself very much in the background of the whole thing until stepping up, with a clarity and kindness lacking elsewhere, in the very last scenes.
Often displaying the events onscreen in beautiful Earthy tones, apart from sharper and unflinching scenes that show our character enduring another bit of body modification, The Ugly Stepsister is quite a gorgeous depiction of ugliness and unpleasantness. It can be viewed through a few different filters, but the central message remains a cautionary tale about the lengths some people feel they have to go to in order to reach, and maintain, impossibly high standards. There's always some way to find fault with someone though, whether investigating their body or their spirit, or both, and what really matters is how you view and treat yourself while others go on about their daily lives. There's no real reason for Prince Julian to seem like any kind of prize here, aside from the obvious financial gain and status boost, but so many young women are instructed to find a prince, any prince, that he and his friends all automatically saunter through life with a lot less pain and effort than those starting from a lower rung on the social ladder.
Blichfeldt has found a great way to reshape and reinvigorate a classic text, and it's clear that there are many other ways she could have added to each main sequence. She knows exactly how to make the most of the premise though, creating a growing sense of discomfort and pain (because, yes, viewers cannot help but empathise with the pain that Elvira is enduring as it continues to build without relief), and benefits from the cinematography of Marcel Zyskind, the score from John Erik Kaada and Vilde Tuv, and the consistently excellent work of everyone else on both sides of the camera.
A very high recommend, especially if you're a fan of gothic fairytale fare, and I absolutely cannot wait to see what we get next from Blichfeldt.
9/10
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