Belated Review: Enchanted
The Friday after Thanksgiving my family graciously agreed to accompany me to a showing of Enchanted, which I will now heartily recommend to anyone looking for fluffy romantic comedy.
As I'm sure you've gathered from the trailers, a fairy tale princess (Amy Adams) gets sent to modern day New York City by an evil witch/queen (Susan Sarandon) and must be rescued from her fate by the queen's stepson (James Marsden). To be frank, the fairy tale plot is flat and boring, but if that's what you're there for, go rent any animated Disney film made between 1937 and the late 1990s. If you're watching Enchanted, you're watching it to see Disney spoof themselves, which they do to marvelous effect.
Giselle (Adams) is Cinderella, Snow White and Sleeping Beauty all rolled into one, and Edward (Marsden) is the very paragon of prince-charming-ness. They are unswervingly earnest and sincere and, Edward especially, played for great comedy. Giselle is taken in by a jaded divorce lawyer (Patrick Dempsey) and his young daughter, and the bulk of the film features her learning to function in New York and Edward totally failing to do so while they search each other out. It's comic gold.
My interest in wanned a little when the evil queen reemerged as an important player. Sarandon's performance was wonderful but, as I've said, the movie's strength did not lie in its plot. On the upside the big climax did feature a wonderful reversal of the classic damsel in distress/knight in shining armor bit, when Giselle has to run to her true love's rescue. It also played with the glass shoe from Cinderella when Giselle and Nancy (the surprisingly non-singing role played by Idina Menzel) turn out to wear the same shoe size.
Not a work out for your brain by any means, but certainly a very fun movie with excellent performances put in by the whole cast. Before I wrap this up, I do need to take a moment to single out James Marsden's performance. I know I'm probably a late-comer to the Marsden fan club, but I genuinely just wasn't that impressed with his Cyclops (X-Men trilogy), and while I suddenly realized he was, in fact, very pretty in Superman Returns, that was all I took particular note of. However, his two most recent films have really bumped him up a few notches in my book. Comedy, I've been told and in my experience, is much harder than drama, and Marsden has pulled it off beautifully. And in harmony--who knew that boy could sing?
As I'm sure you've gathered from the trailers, a fairy tale princess (Amy Adams) gets sent to modern day New York City by an evil witch/queen (Susan Sarandon) and must be rescued from her fate by the queen's stepson (James Marsden). To be frank, the fairy tale plot is flat and boring, but if that's what you're there for, go rent any animated Disney film made between 1937 and the late 1990s. If you're watching Enchanted, you're watching it to see Disney spoof themselves, which they do to marvelous effect.
Giselle (Adams) is Cinderella, Snow White and Sleeping Beauty all rolled into one, and Edward (Marsden) is the very paragon of prince-charming-ness. They are unswervingly earnest and sincere and, Edward especially, played for great comedy. Giselle is taken in by a jaded divorce lawyer (Patrick Dempsey) and his young daughter, and the bulk of the film features her learning to function in New York and Edward totally failing to do so while they search each other out. It's comic gold.
My interest in wanned a little when the evil queen reemerged as an important player. Sarandon's performance was wonderful but, as I've said, the movie's strength did not lie in its plot. On the upside the big climax did feature a wonderful reversal of the classic damsel in distress/knight in shining armor bit, when Giselle has to run to her true love's rescue. It also played with the glass shoe from Cinderella when Giselle and Nancy (the surprisingly non-singing role played by Idina Menzel) turn out to wear the same shoe size.
Not a work out for your brain by any means, but certainly a very fun movie with excellent performances put in by the whole cast. Before I wrap this up, I do need to take a moment to single out James Marsden's performance. I know I'm probably a late-comer to the Marsden fan club, but I genuinely just wasn't that impressed with his Cyclops (X-Men trilogy), and while I suddenly realized he was, in fact, very pretty in Superman Returns, that was all I took particular note of. However, his two most recent films have really bumped him up a few notches in my book. Comedy, I've been told and in my experience, is much harder than drama, and Marsden has pulled it off beautifully. And in harmony--who knew that boy could sing?