Review | Cats film review: messy big-screen treatment of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s stage musical
- Despite starring Taylor Swift, film veterans Dame Judi Dench and Sir Ian McKellen, and James Cordon and Rebel Wilson, the end result disappoints
- Lovers of Andrew Lloyd Webber are bound to enjoy it, but that’s about all
2/5 stars
Arriving mid-holiday season, Tom Hooper’s Cats desperately wants to be this year’s festive family film. Adapted from Andrew Lloyd Webber’s stage musical, itself inspired by T.S. Eliot’s whimsical poems about a tribe of cats called the Jellicles, it certainly has star quality. Taylor Swift, in her first major screen outing, nestles alongside veterans like Dame Judi Dench and Sir Ian McKellen, as well as comic talents James Cordon and Rebel Wilson.
Yet Cats arrives already clawed to shreds on the internet since the first trailer launched. Actors on two legs, dressed as cats, in sets with “giant” furniture to make the cast look feline-sized … it just looked wrong. Watching the film does not really change this. The big issue is with the famous furry faces. It’s distracting seeing the likes of Ray Winstone going full feline; even more so seeing McKellen lapping at a bowl of milk.
Fortunately, Hooper does not entirely blow it. Wisely, he casts ballerina Francesca Hayward, in her first film, as Victoria, the cat that joins the Jellicles. Her elegance and grace shine through. Likewise, Laurie Davidson ( The Good Liar ) as Mr. Mistoffelees excels in the film’s most joyous number (Magical Mr. Mistoffelees). Neither being well-known, they immediately melt into their mischievous roles.
The show-stopping Memories is given to Dreamgirls Oscar winner Jennifer Hudson, who plays Grizabella (a role once mooted for Dench in the original 1981 stage production, before she tore her Achilles tendon).
Hudson gives a powerful rendition, though she’s almost trying too hard. The best of the celebrities is Swift as Bombalurina, the singer being more than capable of holding a tune and audience attention.