Cruella is a disappointing movie. It had suspense and glamour. However, it fell a bit flat on the plot, on the plot twist, and on the message.

I didn’t like a couple of things. For one, the plot twist. The plot twist is that Cruella is the daughter of the Baroness. But I didn’t like it because it wastes the great tension and suspense that the director had created by pitting Cruella against the Baroness. It seemed like the conflict was between Cruella/Estella with their bipolar personality and the Baroness, with her narcissistic personality. The conflict was supposed to be about challenging your mentors, lunging for opportunities even when you don’t have a chance of succeeding, learning to steal but then using it for good. The conflict was also supposed to be about Estella avenging the murder of her mother. But it ended up becoming a chaotic mishmash of multiple desires and thoughts. Scenes from the movie weren’t coherent. I wasn’t exactly sure why Cruella decided to escalate the situation, and I didn’t see where the whole Dalmation thing was going either.

So the screenwriters really struggled with this one.