Cinderella (2015) made Lady Tremaine infinitely more interesting, sympathetic, and villainous with just a short monologue and Cate Blanchett’s killer delivery:
Once upon a time, there was a beautiful young girl who married for love. And she had two loving daughters. All was well...But, one day, her husband, the light of her life, died. The next time, she married for the sake of her daughters. But that man, too, was taken from her. And she was doomed to look every day upon his beloved child. She had hoped to marry off one of her beautiful, stupid daughters to the prince. But his head was turned by a girl with glass slippers. And so...I lived unhappily ever after. My story would appear to be ended. Now, tell me yours.
There are a hundred ways the writers, director, and actress could’ve played this.
What immediately strikes the viewer is the first few sentences are delivered without any irony or sarcasm. She was beautiful, she loved her husband, she loved her daughters. There’s no evidence here that she was secretly evil.
Then tragedy strikes - through no fault of her own.
She chooses the most pragmatic option - can we blame her?
Then her second husband dies - and her hissing on “sssstupid” daughters (compare that to the sober “loving daughters”!) tells us she knows how perilous their situation is.
This is a neat trajectory into sympathetic evil, “Break the Cutie” as TvTropes would say.
The thing is, Lady Tremaine was awful before that! Before her second husband died, she spent too much money, and kicked Ella out of her OWN HOUSE.
On the other, other hand, I would argue that her primary goal in life is the security of her daughters. Ella is a threat to that, even before the prince enters - at least in Tremaine’s head.
Tremaine operates on constant double standards: she criticizes the mystery princess for the breach of etiquette of being unaccompanied, but she forces her daughters onto dance partners without the men’s consent, and when they’d come with their own dates!
Back to the monologue: she sounds in control through the whole thing, and by the end nearly resigned. She’s mostly fine with Ella marrying the prince - as long as she (Tremaine) and her daughters are secure and have some influence.
Then Ella refuses to play ball, and Tremaine loses it. Breaking the shoe and locking Ella up are played as impetuous decisions (although I’m sure Tremaine thought this outcome was possible).
Tremaine is so angry not just for the admitted reasons - “because you are young, and innocent, and good, and I —“ - but because Ella has faced tragedy too, and Ella chose differently.
Tremaine and Ella both lost loved ones unexpectedly, throwing them at the mercy of the world and their wits. They were both women in vulnerable positions. Tremaine made choices, and she can lie to herself fairly successfully that she had to make those choices.
Then Ella makes the opposite choices, and Tremaine’s justifications can’t hold up.
It’s not evil just for fun, but it’s not “oh they’re just a misunderstood villain”. Tremaine is a human being, who suffered tragedy through no fault of her own, then ultimately chose selfishness.
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