Cruella movie review: Emma Stone tries, but misses the mark

Cruella is Disney’s latest efforts to reintroduce old characters, and contemporise them for the new, younger generation of moviegoers. Fry and Hauser, who later become Cruella’s trusty henchmen, provide the requisite comic relief in an otherwise humourless story, but also serve as a reminder of the goodness she might just leave behind. One day Estella lands a job at London’s high-end fashion store, a janitorial position that she’s keen to upturn into a fashion one. I wanted to feel excited for Estella, when she nabbed the chance to work with the Baroness; I wanted to feel her frustration when she was stuck in a dead-end job at the Liberty of London; and when she was on this deranged revenge spree, but Stone’s watery performance never fully realises any of these emotions.