Enchanted
This was a movie that originally I was going to review for my weekly SNMR column over on my regular blog. But then I thought how fun it would be to get the scribester's take on this syrupy-sweet Disney film because I just know how much he looooooves to watch them. However, I don't think that's going to happen, due to some issues he's dealing with right now that are far more pressing than this column. If at some point he'd like to add his review to this post, I'd love to read it.
GREEN'S "IT'S LIKE YOU ESCAPED FROM A HALLMARK CARD OR SOMETHING" REVIEW:
A young, beautiful maiden, Giselle of Andalasia (Amy Adams), is about to marry Prince Edward (James Marsden) and live happily ever after. On the way to the wedding, Giselle is pushed into a magic well by the insanely jealous and evil Queen Narissa (Susan Sarandon) who is disguised as an ugly old hag.The well turns out to be a portal that leads to a place where happily-ever-afters don't exist! Once Prince Edward learns where Giselle has gone, he enthusiastically goes after her, followed by Pip, the talking squirrel and Nathaniel (Timothy Spall), who is promised a relationship with the queen if he can successfully kill Giselle. Enter Robert (Patrick Dempsey), a New York divorce lawyer and his daughter Morgan (Rachel Covey), who take Giselle in and reluctantly let her stay the night...
When this movie was playing in theaters, I never gave it a thought to take my kids to see it. When it came out on DVD and my kids saw it in the store where I buy many of my movies, they begged me to get it for them. This I refused to do, since I thought the movie was going to be stupid. Months later, when I saw that the price had come down significantly I bought it but didn't unwrap it. At the same time I borrowed it from the library, figuring if I watched it and if it truly was as dumb as I thought, then I would return the copy I bought and get my money back.
What I didn't expect was to like this movie as much as I did. (I must've liked it - I watched it three times in a span of four days.) Sure, it's a syrupy, sappy, saccharine sweet fairy tale of a movie. But that's okay because it doesn't presume to be anything else. What makes this film so good is that they've taken the best elements of the classic animated Disney fairy tales Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty and Snow White and combined them into a part animation, mostly live action film that I, in spite of myself, couldn't help but smile and laugh at.Amy Adams, who brings an enthusiasm to her roles that not many actors today can match, is simply brilliant as the wide eyed, eternally optimistic Giselle, the would-be princess who is suddenly thrust into the wilds of New York City by the evil witch. James Marsden is equally good as the incredibly goofy Prince Edward. If this film has a weak link in the cast, it is female eye-candy Patrick Dempsey, who at times is really into his role but other times looks like he's bored and disinterested in his character. Susan Sarandon is good as the voice of the animated witch but when she comes to New York, her costume looks like she's a vamp-tramp hooker or something worse, rather than queen-evil-incarnate. Look for actress Jodi Benson in a bit part as Dempsey's secretary. She provided the voice of Ariel in the 1989 Disney animated classic "The Little Mermaid."
"Enchanted" had three of the five nominated songs at the Academy Awards in 2008, which at the time I thought was silly. How could one movie carry three-fifths of the best movie songs of the year? Though none of them won the Oscar for Best Original Song, they still are really well done and add life and fun to the film.The special features on the DVD are short but well done, explaining some of the CGI effects used and choreography of the musical numbers.
If you're able to sit through this movie and not laugh or smile at least ten times, then you're inhuman or you're lying. This movie is a feel good winner in every sense of the word.
***** out of *****
Enchanted (2007, PG, 107 minutes), starring Amy Adams, Patrick Dempsey, James Marsden, Timothy Spall, Susan Sarandon, Idina Menzel and Rachel Covey. The screenplay was written by Bill Kelly and directed by Kevin Lima.
Labels: review
posted by Tim @ 23:13
12 Comments:
I think this is your best written review yet, despite the dorky subject matter.
Gee, thanks. I think.
Still it would be interesting to get your take on this movie, but it's one I know you'll never watch.
one question:
"When it came out on DVD and my kids saw it in the store where I buy many of my movies, they begged me to get it for them. This I refused to do, since I thought the movie was going to be stupid. Months later, when I saw that the price had come down significantly I bought it but didn't unwrap it."
so basically - 'i thoguht the movie was a going to be a piece of junk, but once it became a cheap piece of junk, how could i resist? But i still didn't actually intend to use the product i spent my hard earned money on.' is that about right?
and people say I'm strange.
AG: I assumed that you would draw the conclusion from my review that this movie is not junk. When I watched the library copy and realized how much I enjoyed it and how much V and M liked it, decided to keep the copy I purchased.
Obviously, had the movie been junk, as I had (mistakenly) thought it would be then yes, I would have returned the copy I bought and returned the library copy.
What I didn't say is that V and M didn't know I bought a copy of this movie until after I watched it and decided it was worth owning. Otherwise all they would have known is that I had borrowed the DVD from the library so we could watch it together.They'd have been none the wiser that I had bought it.
BTW, many of the DVD's I own have been purchased after the initial price had come down. Why pay $18-$20 for a DVD when you can get it for $13 or less after a few months, once the demand has died down.
Unless of course you absolutely have to have it right away and don't mind paying full (or over) price - like you and your insane standing in line to buy a junk Harry Potter book on the day of it's release.
BTW x2 - you are strange.
i think yo umissed my point. Sure, you don't think it's junk now. But when you bought it, you did. Which begs the question why you would buy it at all, if AT THE TIME you thought it was junk. It seems your argument was 'hmmm... i'm still not interested in this film, but why don't i buy it anyways?'
And as far as why pay full price. Why pay at all, when you could clearly get it at your local library?
and incidentally, i didn't stand in line to buy the hp books, and i didn't pay cover price. and while you may not like them, the fact remains that my kids do - and they've read them several times.
I've said it before, anything that gets kids reading is a good thing in my book.
I could swear on a stack of Bibles that you blogged about standing in line waiting for a Harry Potter book the day it was released.
I, in turn, commented that you were crazy to do so and you replied back something along the lines of it (standing in line) was a great way to meet people and socialize with folks you may not ordinarily have contact with.
I will agree with you that anything that gets kids to read is a good thing. But the same question applies here that you asked me about my buying movies - why buy them the Potter books when you can borrow them from the library for free?
Ultimately, I bought this movie because V and M wanted me to get it for them, even though at the time of my purchase I thought it would be junk. Plus there's nothing wrong with saving a few bucks here and there. And, if you're going to buy "junk," why pay more than you have to?
They do happen to like some movies that I don't, and I've bought them some movies that I know I'd never watch. I've also borrowed movies from the library that they wanted to see that I would never in a million years spend money on. Depends on the movie, I guess.
AARGH! You know old friend, sometimes you infuriate me! :)
"And, if you're going to buy "junk," why pay more than you have to?"
Let me try this one more time:
WHY BUY JUNK AT ALL?
cuz sometimes the junk isn't junk.
And (in this case) it makes the kiddoes happy.
LOL you guys crack me up. I saw this movie. A bit too youngish for me but it was cute.
I didn't know you wrote about this one!!
I accidently stumbled upon this too... and I'll have to admit, I watched it by myself one afternoon while folding clothes and I loved it so much I bought it for the kids.
I love the little twists in this tale. The tunes are catchy... and I think the only acting I REALLY wasn't fond of was Dempsey's initial love interest. I don't know who she was... but you really could have plugged anyone in there. I'll agree with you about Dempsey's performace, he did seem bored at times, but then sometimes I think he's always like that having watched 5 seasons of Grey's Anatomy more than I probably should. But Amy Adams is such a joy to watch. Talk about bringing to life what we've only seen as animated characters. Brilliant.
OOH... and there's a Harry Potter connection here: The man who played Nathaniel (The evil queen's pawn) plays Peter Pettigrew in the Harry Potter films whose name is Timothy Spall.
~autumn: you need to stop by this blog more regularly! (and comment!) We try to add a new review regularly but sometimes it's hard coordinating everything.
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