Movie Review:

Mark Trammell, Forum Editor
Published On: 03/18/2008

“Penelope” is a good old-fashioned fairy tale, the kind they rarely make anymore. As with more recent classics like “The Princess Bride” and “Enchanted,” some sops to modernity are made here- in this case, some characters drink at a pub, and some nods to tabloid culture and the fickleness of fame are made, but overall, this is old-school stuff.

Essentially a morality tale, the story begins when a nobleman in love with a woman beneath his class is forced to give her up by his parents, who are then cursed by the woman’s witchy relative. The curse dictates that the first-born female in the family will be born with a pig’s snout, thus ensuring that she will never find love herself. As it turns out, a female child isn’t born until years later in modern times, in the guise of otherwise-fair Penelope (Christina Ricci), whose mother keeps her locked up in the house out of embarrassment as much as of fear of her being ridiculed or hurt by the townspeople. Only one person knows of her existence besides her family, tabloid photographer Lemon (Peter Dinklage), who has been trying to get a money shot of her ever since he had one of his eyes destroyed by Penelope’s mother (Catherine O’Hara) when hiding in the house.

Meanwhile, Penelope’s parents have been desperately trying to break the curse, the only way which is to supposedly find a man who will love Penelope despite her snout. If she does, the curse will be broken and the snout will vanish. Unfortunately, few suitors remain standing once they get a look at her less-than-perfect visage (though, to be honest, she otherwise looks pretty hot). There is one man, Max (James McAvoy), who takes a shine to her, but he may be hiding a secret of his own which may cause the two a less-than-happy ending, so he ultimately turns his back on her. This causes Penelope to run away from home and face potentially horrific repercussions once her identity is inevitably discovered.

However, things don’t turn out the way you might think, and though the ending is ultimately a happy one- it wouldn’t be much of a fairy tale without one of those- the film is hardly sappy. If anything, with the epidemic of teens getting plastic surgery and all the pressure on girls to lose weight, this type of film is just the ticket, especially for young girls who may be in the audience. In fact, this may well be the perfect film to take the family to if your family includes young girls, but really its message of loving and being true to yourself crosses all gender lines. This is undoubtedly what attracted producer and co-star Reese Witherspoon, who has a daughter of her own, as well as a son.

The film plays like a combination of the TV show “Pushing Daises” and one of Tim Burton’s films, only much more light-hearted and less dark. The cast is perfectly suited to this sort of material, with Ricci an old hand at the sort of thing in particular, having done time with Burton himself (in “Sleepy Hollow”), as well having essayed one of the original shut-ins, Wednesday (in the “Addams Family” movies), not to mention having essayed both Little Red Riding Hood and the (were)wolf in other films. Relative newcomer to the genre McAvoy (“Atonement”) has never been sweeter on screen, and another Burton refugee, O’Hara (“Beetlejuice,” “Nightmare Before Christmas”) does a great job as a mother who ranges from overprotective to hurtful in one fell swoop.

This is a great job by all concerned, with beautiful sets (especially the interior of Penelope’s house) and colorful cinematography by Frenchman Michel Amathieu, here making only his second American film in over 25 years. (Here’s hoping he doesn’t remain such a stranger if this film is any indication!) Also, first time director Mark Palansky also does a highly credible job of adapting former “Everybody Loves Raymond” scribe Leslie Caveny’s first motion picture script. Overall, a perfect family film that the grown-ups may just like every bit as much as their kids.

“Penelope”
Starring Christina Ricci, Peter Dinklage, Catherine O’Hara, Reese Witherspoon, James McAvoy.

Run time: 1 hr. 29 min.

Rating: PG

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