Not Cinderella's Type

This was surprisingly good for a hallmark movie. Do not be fooled by the poster and the summary, this isn't your typical indentured servant girl with a teenage romance. Sure some of the dialogue is corny but what do you expect? It's a Hallmark movie.

What I really appreciate though, is the fact that they took time to develop the element of friendship between Indy and Bryant. He wasn't just her prince, he was also her fairy godmother. Most Cinderella adaptations I've watched just focused on her hardships and her romance at the big nice ball, but this movie delivered a more fleshed out prince in the form of Bryant. In particular, I really liked how they highlighted the difference between him and Max, and I enjoyed looking out for Indy's reactions to both of them. Cinderella's character was true to the original. You find out how kind and patient she is through her actions in the movie. Obviously, the acting could have been better but it didn't bother me that much.

The surprising thing was they actually touched on the abuse in Cinderella and treated it very seriously in this modern retelling e.g. the signs, the different types, the process of handling it, so if you're not comfortable with that sort of thing and want more of a fairytale romance, then I suggest you watch another adaptation. But personally, I thought it was handled sensibly.

Overall, I think it's nice that they've managed to make a heartwarming movie about family and friendship, and some romance to finish things off. The beginning is quite corny but if you stick around, it gets better.

Imagine what a Cinderella story would be like if it was set in modern suburbia with high school students. Okay, now you are imagining this incorrectly. So imagine it was a realistically based story that addressing the issues and mechanisms associated dealing with abusive foster parent environments. Now you are getting the picture.

This story of Cindy Ella (get it), who lives with her aunt and uncle and their daughters, while going to school, and there is a handsome guy involved.

This is not exactly a well written story, and while the acting is okay, it is all a bit superficial. But it addresses some important issues intelligently enough. So yeah, it is a good one for teens to watch.

This is a good family movie with a good message. Also, the main actors were very likable. The message is an important one. Emotional abuse is quite insidious and, like the main character here, it is often hard to define. All one knows is they are being made to feel bad about almost everything about themselves, and nothing they do is good enough. In most cases, such abuse also involves physical abuse. In this movie, someone cared enough to help out, and fortunately their efforts worked. I Highly recommend it. James Welch Henderson, Arkansas 01/02/2021

I wouldn't recommend this movie for children, because its heavy and unrealistic without teaching much anything valuable. The main character projects very few of the values the original Cinderella projected and is... quite bland, and so are most of the other characters. The only character I have half a good word for is Indy's sidekick, and even that went bad with the sideplot happening there.

Unfortunately the acting makes it unwatchable for anyone somewhat older. The exaggerations would have been better done in a comic way, because now its just thoroughly cringy and awful. The typical TV Movie soundtrack playing in the background is painfully obvious.

I don't understand what the target audience of this movie is supposed to be, nor do I understand the point of its existence. The movie could've been so much more, but it managed to get every single possible thing wrong. I'm sorry for the actors for having to act such an awful script. The acting seems overdone and unfortunately the pacing is also way off and the conversations seem unnatural. It would work well in a theater IMHO but overdoing it to this degree is unnecessary when the camera is half a meter from your face.

Watched during a romcom binge, but this managed to still stick out as horrible. Sorry. The second star was gained for the lack of use of GIF birds, the third for effort and having a proper camera man and some +/- decent scenes.

Worth SKIPPING channels for 10 more minutes instead of 1.5 hours of your life. I think you get used to it at around 50 minutes in, or maybe the muscles around your eye just tire of cringing.

We enjoyed it in spite of the terribly broad acting, particularly of the aunt and uncle. The reality is much grittier, but the emotional abuse suffered by the title character is not as rare as you might think. 'Want to be the hero yourself? ...then consider serving as a CASA. Just Google it.