Ella Enchanted Movie Review:


Ella (Anne Hathaway) is a quiet but often opinionated girl. Her father (Patrick Bergin) has left her with her twisted stepmother (Joanna Lumley) and her two stepsisters, Hattie (Lucy Punch) and Olive (Jennifer Higham) while he ventured off in the kingdom as a salesman. Ella desperately hides her curse as she tries to duck her new stepfamily. What is her curse, pray tell? Obedience, even if it happens to be unreasonable and impractical.

But when Ella comes face to face with hunkish Prince Charmont (Hugh Darcy), Ella must find a way to end her curse, stop the evil Edgar (Cary Elwes) and finally be free so she can love the prince. Gasp, what is a girl to do?

Did someone drop me out a window on my head or is that the actual storyline of the new fantasy-comedy, “Ella Enchanted”?

How does one look at a film like this without screaming the word “cheese” from the highest rooftops. That is the perfect way to describe this comedy. If you peal back the cheddar and see the film for the context that it is in then quite possibly you may understand the story. But in some scenes and especially during the idiotic “I must obey because I am cursed” scenes it can get really hard to do just that.

Those scenes got old really quickly and it was really hard not to see the morally corrupt message that the story could have on impressionable young girls. Unquestionable obedience is not a practical message to presenting to any generation. Think before you obey because it is your right. Always question is what we should teach. What if this was a girl cursed with always asking too many questions wouldn’t that be more practical? Then her cure would be to finally have her most precious question answered. Ok it maybe hokey but at least it makes more sense when we are talking “Ella Enchanted”.

I really enjoy the performances of Anne Hathaway in the past and that does include “The Princess Diaries” which is a lot better than Ella. Still my favorite performance by the young starlet was on her short-lived but exceptional series, “Get Real”. I knew she was going to happen from the pilot of that show and she hasn’t proven me wrong yet. Her performance in “Ella Enchanted” is as good as it can be for a film like this. She is great as Ella just that she a strong performance can’t overcome how goofy the whole film is.

I am not sure if there are any of you out there that remember a TV series from the 80s called, “The Charmings”. The series was about Snow White, Prince Charming and their kids being flung across time to our world where they try to fit in. It was a cheesy little series that was hypnotically enduring for that period of television. “Ella” reminded me in spades of that show especially when a lot of modern day applications have crossed over into Ella’s fairy tale world. In some ways, “Ella” can be hypnotic as well.

The world displayed in this film maybe made of cheddar but it can be entertaining. Was I entertained with “Ella”? In some ways yes but the goofy obedience spell, the annoying disappearing giants who are in one scene but not in the next, Elwes’s daft pet snake and Ella’s relatives all but stopped me from seeing any real magic in Ella. There should have been less gimmicks and more practicality.

When you do end up questioning yourself about seeing “Ella Enchanted”, you don’t have to obey, you aren’t cursed. (1.5 out of 5) So Says the Soothsayer. (dwkish@shaw.ca)

The Girl Next Door

By Dean Kish

The phrase “The Girl Next Door” has adopted a lot of different meanings in the past 2 decades. It used to mean harmless, charming, attractive yet meek. The sweet kind of girl we all knew as kids. Nowadays, the phrase has taken on a more sexual and erotic connotation. The central character, Danielle, in the new film “The Girl Next Door” is a little of both meanings.

Matthew Kidman (Emile Hirsch), a high school boy, mistakenly sees his neighbor, Danielle (Elisha Cuthbert) in a compromising position late one night through an upstairs window. Danielle catches Matthew peeping and marches over to his house for an apology.

That chain events unlocks a new side of Matthew as he begins to fall in love with the girl soon after their courtship begins he learns through some friends at school that Danielle is actually an “on-the-run” porn actress who just wants a new life. Danielle hasn’t run far enough way as Kelly (Timothy Olyphant), her corrupt manager soon arrives in their lives and forces Danielle back to work for him. She is gorgeous, smart, and funny everything Matthew would want in a girl. How is Matthew supposed to rescue the girl of his dreams? And how can he hope to when he is just a kid still in high school.

In some ways, “The Girl Next Door” is in the same vain as “Risky Business” except in that film you had prostitutes instead of pornstars. There is also the mixing of the sweet and innocent side with the sleazy sex business side. The main differences between the films are the portrayals of the young male leads. Cruise’s film does show his character evolve a lot more than Hirsch. Cruise is also able to act older where Hirsch always looks like he is probably 6 years younger than the character he is playing. I really like Hirsch but his whole role here seemed kind of odd. Cuthbert’s Danielle looks way older than him.

I felt a little weird that the film characterized porn people as idols. The porn manager character’s attempts to lure high school girls into the biz. The ideas of high school boys taking porn actresses to the prom. And the idea of filming a porn film at the school was also weird. These ideas, even though they were in a humor context, made me a little squeamish. What were they trying to film here, the Traci Lords story as seen through the eyes of a PEZ dispenser?

It was really hard to accept the merging of these two worlds. The portrayals by Olyphant and James Remar as porn tycoons were probably the best of the piece. I really liked how they grasped their roles. Remar did play his role closely to the role he played on “Sex & the City” but it was Olyphant who was the one to watch. This guy ate scenery and blew Cuthbert out of the water.

If you can look past the odd merging of worlds and enjoy the film as a comedy then you probably will have a lot of fun with it. I didn’t find it particularly sweet like I did with “Tadpole” but I am not sure if its goal was to be sweet. At least for me the subject matter got in the way of the laughs. There are some strong performances but over all it is a toss up.

(3 out of 5)

So Says the Soothsayer

Dean Kish

After been given a ‘gift’ as a baby by her Fairy Godmother Lucinda (Fox), Ella (Hathaway) would have to spend the rest of her life been obedient. In other words, if someone told her to do something, she had to do it. When her father married Dame Olga (Lumley), her family expanded to include two stepsisters Hattie (Punch) and Olive (Higham) who found out her secret and exploited her at every opportunity. Tired of been used by her new family, Ella sets out to find Lucinda and ask her to remove the spell.

Combining modern music and fairy tales has been done to amazing success in the world of animation but could this successfully transfer to live action?

Based on the novel by Gail Carson Levine, ‘Ella Enchanted’ takes modern music and ideals and transports them into a world of Giants, Knights, Elves and Ogres. This is a world ruled by a tyrant that has forced all the non-humans into servitude, so it is up to our heroine to save the day and unite the all the different people. While in the realm of fairy tales this might not sound that unique, but the movie takes a fresh approach and makes this tale very up to date.

This is another movie that is meant to showcase the talents of Anne Hathaway and it succeeds. She is an instantly likeable actress that has everything to appeal to her target audience for this movie, young girls. She is very pleasant, extremely appeal and while she is very pretty, she is not totally stunning to the point that no one can connect with her. The main thing she has going for her is that is extremely nice. This is a girl that the audience would like to be friends with and this is Anne Hathaway’s appeal. As Ella, she personifies this by making the obedient character instantly likeable and easy to get behind. This is a role that she excels in but it would be in good to see her in a more challenging roles.

Her supporting cast is also good. Hugh Dancy is the love interest of the piece and is the typical Prince Charming. In fact his name is actually Prince Charm. He plays the role with a certain about of daring do and charm that will instantly appeal to the target audience. Aidan McArdle is also good as Slannen, an elf that wants to break away from the traditional singing and dancing niche that elves have been forced into and become a lawyer. There are also noticeable cameo roles from Minnie Driver, Vivica A. Fox, Eric Idle and Joanna Lumley, who all bring something to their roles.

Ella Enchanted is a nice film that will really appeal to its target audience. This is another showcase for the talents of Anne Hathaway, in which she also gets to sing, and she is surrounded by an accomplished supporting cast making this a good family film and a live action update of the fairy tale movie.

Star Rating = * * *

Jamie Kelwick

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