17 Days of Nothing, then WHAM!
So, instead of television, a movie watched streaming on Netflix! Yay!
I don’t know how many of you may have seen this, but in case you haven’t: Penelope, starring Christina Ricci and James McAvoy and produced by Reese Witherspoon, who is also in the movie. It’s a beautifully set, beautifully filmed fairy tale set in that delightful land somewhere between here-and-now and once-upon-a-time that you find so often in Tim Burton (or even Pushing Daisies) where manmade things seem to have grown and natural ones handcrafted. And while the point is a little heavy-handed, it’s so wonderfully performed (and delightfully plotted, with some unexpected twists) that it’s hard to care.
It’s about a girl whose aristocratic family was put under a curse, so that the next daughter born would have the face of a pig “until one of your own kind claims this daughter as their own, till death do they part”. Generations went past, sons and sons and sons, until finally, Christina Ricci (plus prosthetic nose). So they spend years trying to find her a blue-blood husband who didn’t run in terror at the sight of her face, in order to break the curse.
Now here’s my biggest problem with the movie: the prosthetic pig nose is adorable. I can understand being shocked and a little horrified, but once you pause and look, it’s just a little odd and really quite cute. They keep calling her “the pig”, and talking about how ugly and terrifying she is, but in all honesty, I don’t understand how they went seven years with everyone literally running out in panic (or throwing himself out the window).
But otherwise? Delightful. And I kind of understand why they went that route instead of the actually horrifying pig-face route: you get it once you see the sets and the costumes and the whole feel of the movie. It just wouldn’t work.
So let me talk about the awesome characters. There is, of course, Penelope (Christina Ricci), who’s lovely and innocent and smart-mouthed without being that overused characteristic “snarky”. Her parents are just enough over-the-top to work in the setting while still being realistic (her father’s a dear, and her mother is that terrible overprotective sort who loves her too much to see what’s best). There’s one-eyed dwarf reporter Lemon, who quickly, with the help of a few brilliant and well-delivered one-liners and some wonderfully heartfelt scenes, became one of my favorite characters (it’s the same actor who played Trumpkin in Prince Caspian and Liz’s brief boyfriend Stewart in 30 Rock, which should tell you that he’s both funny and lovable). And then there’s James McAvoy, who is gorgeous as usual, smart and funny, wears a terrific hat, and had me melting every second he was on screen. So, you know, business as usual. And there’s even a brief appearance by Burn Gorman, sporting a terrible American accent (I laughed and clapped and went, “OWEN!” when I saw him) (also, I kind of love how everyone has American accents (of varying decency) except for the blueblood suitors, who are uniformly upper-class British).
So watch it, if you haven’t. It’s only an hour and a half long, and it’s just delightful, and I loved it. Charming, enchanting, and a dozen other magical words.
I don’t know how many of you may have seen this, but in case you haven’t: Penelope, starring Christina Ricci and James McAvoy and produced by Reese Witherspoon, who is also in the movie. It’s a beautifully set, beautifully filmed fairy tale set in that delightful land somewhere between here-and-now and once-upon-a-time that you find so often in Tim Burton (or even Pushing Daisies) where manmade things seem to have grown and natural ones handcrafted. And while the point is a little heavy-handed, it’s so wonderfully performed (and delightfully plotted, with some unexpected twists) that it’s hard to care.
It’s about a girl whose aristocratic family was put under a curse, so that the next daughter born would have the face of a pig “until one of your own kind claims this daughter as their own, till death do they part”. Generations went past, sons and sons and sons, until finally, Christina Ricci (plus prosthetic nose). So they spend years trying to find her a blue-blood husband who didn’t run in terror at the sight of her face, in order to break the curse.
Now here’s my biggest problem with the movie: the prosthetic pig nose is adorable. I can understand being shocked and a little horrified, but once you pause and look, it’s just a little odd and really quite cute. They keep calling her “the pig”, and talking about how ugly and terrifying she is, but in all honesty, I don’t understand how they went seven years with everyone literally running out in panic (or throwing himself out the window).
But otherwise? Delightful. And I kind of understand why they went that route instead of the actually horrifying pig-face route: you get it once you see the sets and the costumes and the whole feel of the movie. It just wouldn’t work.
So let me talk about the awesome characters. There is, of course, Penelope (Christina Ricci), who’s lovely and innocent and smart-mouthed without being that overused characteristic “snarky”. Her parents are just enough over-the-top to work in the setting while still being realistic (her father’s a dear, and her mother is that terrible overprotective sort who loves her too much to see what’s best). There’s one-eyed dwarf reporter Lemon, who quickly, with the help of a few brilliant and well-delivered one-liners and some wonderfully heartfelt scenes, became one of my favorite characters (it’s the same actor who played Trumpkin in Prince Caspian and Liz’s brief boyfriend Stewart in 30 Rock, which should tell you that he’s both funny and lovable). And then there’s James McAvoy, who is gorgeous as usual, smart and funny, wears a terrific hat, and had me melting every second he was on screen. So, you know, business as usual. And there’s even a brief appearance by Burn Gorman, sporting a terrible American accent (I laughed and clapped and went, “OWEN!” when I saw him) (also, I kind of love how everyone has American accents (of varying decency) except for the blueblood suitors, who are uniformly upper-class British).
So watch it, if you haven’t. It’s only an hour and a half long, and it’s just delightful, and I loved it. Charming, enchanting, and a dozen other magical words.