I absolutely love modern fairy tale retellings, but drawing from this rich well of public domain and creating a new story that actually has something to say and isn’t just a beat-for-beat adaptation is pretty tricky. Rumpelstiltskin is a horror-inclined indie project, produced by the intrepid Paranoid Android company, which follows the original tale pretty closely but fills in some empty spaces with additional plot. Compared to Once Upon a Time and Shrek‘s more sprawling and at times convoluted takes on the titular character, this tight, contained story has the potential to delve into him in a more personal way.
With fairly interesting and intermittently sympathetic main characters and an aesthetic the filmmakers clearly love to languish in, Rumpelstiltskin could be a lot worse, even if it is just a straightforward adaptation of its source material. However, the filmmakers aren’t the mythologized, immensely talented auteurs just waiting to be discovered by a competitive industry — yet. Rumpelstiltskin was a fun, experimental viewing experience that managed to trick me into getting more invested than I’d planned, and I would definitely return to see what else writer-director Andy Edwards (Cinederella’s Revenge) and the rest of the filmmakers do next.
Rumpelstiltskin Feels Like A Homemade Movie – For Better & For Worse
The Opening Scene Definitely Worries With Unnatural Dialogue
There is an appeal to movies that are visibly low-budget, but that doesn’t really matter if they have a strong story. Rumpelstiltskin has an outdated aspect ratio that throws you from the beginning. It opens up with some standard shots of a misty mountain forest environment before introducing us to the rebellious main character and her current dalliance. And that first scene really had me worried. Miller’s daughter Evalina (Hannah Baxter-Eve) and Jakob (Chris Mills) are having an illicit tryst in the spooky woods, and their conversation is painfully stilted.
If all you watch is mainstream, this will come across as wildly offbeat, but there is still much to be appreciated.
The sense that the actors are speaking like inherently fake characters never really goes away, but you settle into the different rhythm of the movie, and the opening scene is arguably the worst offender anyway. Other elements, like the kitschy title cards and the constant darkness, also speak to attempts at avant-gardism but are ultimately indicators of low production value, which inversely do have a kind of charm. While the costuming for the extras is surface-level, it is clear, however, that the design team chose to focus their efforts where it really counted.
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Rumpelstiltskin‘s sets are exactly what they need to be for this kind of movie, even if they are not groundbreaking. There’s a decent amount of detail in the nobility characters’ costuming, as well as a wonderful live-theater macabre look for our title character. I love Evalina’s costumes in particular, which are a kind of modernized Renaissance couture that still allows her some personality in stifling situations. For those who primarily watch mainstream movies, this will come across as wildly offbeat, but there is still much to be appreciated.
Rumpelstiltskin’s Leads & Story Only Grow On You As The Movie Carries On
Mr. Gold Might Even Bow To This Performance
That first scene, and quite a few that come after it, really make it hard for Hannah Baxter-Eve to appear good at acting. However, she has real spunk that makes her an enjoyable character to watch, especially as she deals with Rumpelstiltskin, deliciously played by Joss Carter. Even if some of the dialogue detracts from it, she does a decent job of embodying Evalina’s arc, from an untamed young woman to a strategic mother and queen. But even as this arc was executed, I sort of missed her earlier characterization.
Yet there are also still hints of fear in Rumpelstiltskin’s character, which fits the power dynamics at play in this story that get more interesting with time.
Eva snarkily starts her bargaining with the creature by saying, “So now we get down to the parsnips and pears of it,” a line that I weirdly liked. Meanwhile, Carter is at least delivering on the chaotic performance that is crucial to any iteration of Rumpelstiltskin. He has a lot of creepy, sing-songy speaking idiosyncrasies and a physicality that suggests this is all a game to him, sashaying around Evalina. Yet there are also still hints of fear in Rumpelstiltskin’s character, which fits the power dynamics at play, and they only get more interesting with time.
Rumpelstiltskin Fascinates But Throws Around Ideas It Doesn’t Follow Through On
Rumpelstiltskin Can’t Decide On A Name Or A Main Theme
Even as this movie’s bad writing and reliance on certain tropes broke my immersion, I was admittedly fascinated by the whole thing. And yet it doesn’t seem to know what the point of it all is. There are moments touching upon women’s autonomy, deforestation, and the King’s (Colin Malone) tyranny, but none of these are developed into a full storyline. Later, the film also tries to lean into the theme of family with the Miller (Mark Cook) affectionately advising Evalina on parenting her own son (having apparently forgiven her father for the whole “she can spin straw into gold” thing).
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The movie is divided into chapters that tell us where Evalina is in her life, suggesting it is merely about her growth in an unjust world. Some of the back-and-forth between her and Rumple is intriguing, suggesting he actually wants a friend, as he is also a lonely being abused by a higher authority. Yet he does want to eat her child to save himself, and she is fundamentally disgusted by him. Thus, Rumpelstiltskin was an interesting experience but doesn’t seem to impart any message other than to study the “old ways” of the forest.