Ever After

Green’s Review:

“Ever After” puts a slightly different spin on the classic Cinderella story. Taking place in early 16th century France, this is the story of Danielle De Barbarac, a noble by birth with intelligence and common sense beyond her years, who virtually becomes a slave in her own household after the untimely death of her father and thanks to his brand-new marriage to the vile stepmother Baroness Rodmilla De Ghent. The story follows predictably as Danielle is viewed as a "pebble in the shoe" by the stepmother, and an obstacle to be overcome by her two "ugly" stepsisters, Marguerite and Jacqueline.

Danielle accidentally meets the Crown Prince of France while he’s “stealing” a horse from their stables in an effort to avoid his impending prearranged marriage while she's collecting apples in the orchard before breakfast. They subsequently meet at the most inopportune moments in odd places and, after an awkward beginning to their relationship, begin to fall in love. My favorite part was seeing the vile step mother and her self-centered oldest daughter get their come-uppance at the end of the movie.

Drew Barrymore capably plays Danielle, and Anjelica Huston is excellent as the delightfully vile and highly annoying stepmother. Dougray Scott, however is awkward in the role of Prince Henry and it takes most of the movie for him to find his groove with the character. Underrated director Andy Tennant does a good job of holding this film together with a questionable script and actually makes this film bearable to watch at 100 minutes in length.

The insertion of Italian Leonardo Da Vinci into the French monarchy’s inner circle seemed odd to me at first, but in doing a bit of checking on www.wikipedia.com, I discovered that Da Vinci did indeed spend the last three years of his life in the service of King Francois I of France, so that part of the film is accurate. That he was mentor to a young adult Prince Henry is impossible though, since Henry - the oldest surviving child of King Francois I and Queen Claude (not Marie as in the film), was born in 1519, the year of Da Vinci’s death. Not to mention that Henry went on to marry Catherine de’ Medici, in 1533, at the ripe old age of 14!!

So much for trying to bring "historical accuracy" into a fairytale, as is attempted in the beginning of the movie, with an aged “great-great granddaughter” of Henry and Danielle, speaking to the Brothers Grimm about clearing up the historical record in the Cinderella tale.

On the whole, this is a watchable film thanks to the capable direction of Tennant and the talents of Barrymore and Huston, but certainly no where near classic cinema.

** ½ out of *****


Scribe's Review:

Aww!!! Come on!!! EVERYBODY!!!

AWWWWWWWWWWWwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww!!!
True love conquers all. And in this case, it even overcomes a rather weak screenplay. The subject of said screenplay is an updating of the Cinderella fairytale with Drew Barrymore in the lead role. Yes...DREW BARRYMORE as a French woman with a faux English accent.

The film opens with a young girl whose father (portrayed by the highly underrated Jeroen Krabbe) loves her very much and is marrying a total bitch. A perfect set-up for the post-modern girl power generation if ever there was one. Naturally, the girl hates her step-mother, portrayed with wicked glee by Anjelica Huston. So when Daddy decides to take a trip and winds up keeling over and dying at the gates of his palace, things change rapidly. It doesn't help matters that Huston sees her new hubby speak last to his daughter before he goes.

Flash forward some years and Barrymore is now the Cinderella we know and...love, I guess. She runs around cleaning and attending her step-sisters, one pretty, one movie ugly which is really pretty anyway, and flirting with a servant boy who wants to jump her bones.

As always, there's a prince. And as always, there's a prince who doesn't want to be a prince. He is being forced into a marriage with a Spanish royal (apparently marrying a hot Spanish chick was bad?) and is roaming the countryside looking for a real woman. Here's where it gets juicy: In order to save a soon to be executed friend, Barrymore pretends to be a royal and winds up meeting...oh, you've seen this before???

Then you probably know the rest. I guess I won't bore you with the endless pissing contest courtship scenes or the bizarre addition of Leonardo Da Vinci. I won't go into the silly sub-plot including her step-sister trying to get hers if you know what I mean. Maybe you don't.

The real missed opportunity here is the fact that this entire film is based on the premise that the Brothers Grimm were invited to the home of Cinderella's ancestor to hear the tale. Why missed? Because it's little more than a plot device. There's no discernible reason for that to be in the film. Unlike Young Guns II, for instance, the character telling the flashback tale has no bearing on the action or the resolution of the movie.

Still, Barrymore exudes a certain charm and the girl's got a great set of headlights. Her co-star Dougray Scott (Prince Henry) is competent in the role and never descends into camp. Much of the dialogue is crisp and witty as well. For a chick flick, this one is only half-bad, and that's pretty damn good!

*** out of *****