'Cruella' Looks Great But Lacks Bite

Cruella is an awkwardly constructed origin story that desperately wants to reframe a wannabe dog killer into a sympathetic protagonist. The result is a story that doesn’t capture what makes the Cruella character so much fun to watch in “101 Dalmatians.” 

The movie kicks off with Cruella as a young girl. Her real name is Estella and she’s a budding fashionista with a rough-and-tumble side. After her mother dies in what I can only describe as a truly absurd confrontation, Estella joins a duo of street urchins and forms a gang that runs scams and grifts. Ten years pass and Estella (Emma Stone) has become a young woman who uses her prodigious skills to fabricate costumes for her gang's escapades. Still, all she really wants is to be part of the fashion industry.

Eventually, Estella gets her shot at the big time when she lands a job with fashion designer Baroness von Hellman (Emma Thompson). The Baroness is an icy and abusive boss and the closest thing Estella has to a mentor figure. 

The story then changes gears, morphing into a intergenerational rivalry between the Baroness and Estella, who at this point adopts her alter ego, Cruella. In this fashion fisticuffs, the Baroness represents the establishment, while Cruella is fashion’s edgy future.

The film hits an enjoyable, but all too brief, crescendo as the two women battle each other through ever-elaborate costumes, and in Cruella’s case, performances. There are some truly inspired moments and memorable outfits. Unfortunately, the lengths the film goes to set up this fashion duel detracts from the fun. 

I also wish that Cruella would have leaned into how over-the-top wicked Cruella is as a character. At the movie's conclusion, Estella has fully adopted the Cruella personality, but she’s light years away from the character we know from the animated movie.

I think the bigger problem with the film is it’s conceit. There is no reason for the movie to exist. No one was clamoring for a Cruella backstory. In fact, people love the character because she’s fully formed when we first meet her. Spending three-fourths of a movie showing how Estella became Cruella, means we only spend one-fourth of the film with the character we actually want to spend time with.