The magic is gone in this latest screen version of "Cinderella". From its uninspiring title -- and certain turnoff for young males -- to its limp slapstick and uneven acting, "A Cinderella Story" arrives with a dull thud. It doesn't help that this contemporary take on the classic fairy tale re-explores ground already covered this year by such movies as "Mean Girls" and "Ella Enchanted".
Thanks to popular young star Hilary Duff, the film might see a brisk boxoffice opening weekend. But word-of-mouth and more attractive options in the multiplexes should lead to a sharp drop-off by the second week.
Wicked stepmothers and Prince Charmings are awkward concepts in a contemporary setting. There is little evidence that writer Leigh Dunlap or her producers thought through how to re-imagine the fairy tale for modern day. Having Cinderella leave behind a cell phone instead of a glass slipper as the clock strikes midnight is not nearly enough.
First of all, the film never makes the case that our Cinderella, Valley high school senior Sam Montgomery (Duff), is truly abused. When her dear dad dies in the Northridge earthquake -- how exactly? we wonder -- her self-indulgent, plastic surgery-obsessed stepmom, Fiona (Jennifer Coolidge in an amusing but over-the-top performance), banishes Sam to the attic and puts her to work in her dad's '50s diner. The trouble is, designer Charles Breen turns that attic into a very cool-looking loft, Sam's paycheck goes to her college education and must we really feel sorry for a girl who complains that she has to drive a "beat-up old car"? The car runs, doesn't it?
Her high school is similarly disconnected from reality but not in the fairy tale sort of way. Not to put too fine a point on it, but Duff is a beauty, and costume designer Denise Wingate does nothing to make her seem otherwise. So why is Sam so unpopular with the boys? They mock her as "Diner Girl" -- what, no one else at school has a job? -- and her only male friend, geeky Carter (Dan Byrd), seems oblivious to her charms as well. Then she puts on a gown and mask and everyone is knocked out by her presence. Go figure.
Her dreamboat is popular football star Austin Ames Chad Michael Murray). He's a good-looking lad, but the script makes him into a boob. He's afraid of his dad, in a dead-end relationship with a shallow cheerleader (Julie Gonzalo), easily cowed by his buddies and unable or unwilling to pursue his Cinderella. They don't make Prince Charmings the way they used to.
Director Mark Rosman and Dunlap search for laughs in all the wrong places. Fiona's complete body makeover with implants, Botox, plastic surgery and a tanning machine earns a few laughs but gets old fast. The slapstick bumbling of Sam's "out-of-step-sisters," Brianna (Madeline Zima) and Gabriella (Andrea Avery), is thoroughly unfunny.
Duff and Byrd anchor the film in a perky though realistic acting style. But too many other actors resort to overblown shtick in a vain attempt to bring cartoonish characters to life. The diner sequences work the best: Regina King, Paul Rodriguez and others form a neat ensemble of characters who work hard, support one another and share a mutual contempt for the owner. Conversely, the sequences in high school or at home feel tired if not belabored.
Tech credits are pro though unexciting.
A Cinderella Story
Warner Bros. Oictures
A Clifford Werber production
Credits:
Director: Mark Rosman
Screenwriter: Leigh Dunlap
Producers: Clifford Werber, Ilyssa Goodman, Hunt Lowry, Dylan Sellers
Executive producers: Michael Rachmil, Peter Greene, Keith Giglio
Director of photography: Anthony B. Richmond
Production designer: Charles Breen
Music: Christophe Beck
Costume designer: Denise Wingate
Editor: Cara Silverman
Cast:
Sam: Hilary Duff
Fiona: Jennifer Coolidge
Austin: Chad Michael Murray
Carter: Dan Byrd
Rhonda: Regina King, Shelby: Julie Gonzalo
Mrs. Wells: Lin Shaye
Brianna: Madeline Zima
Gabriella: Andrea Avery
MPAA rating PG
Running time -- 95 minutes...
Thanks to popular young star Hilary Duff, the film might see a brisk boxoffice opening weekend. But word-of-mouth and more attractive options in the multiplexes should lead to a sharp drop-off by the second week.
Wicked stepmothers and Prince Charmings are awkward concepts in a contemporary setting. There is little evidence that writer Leigh Dunlap or her producers thought through how to re-imagine the fairy tale for modern day. Having Cinderella leave behind a cell phone instead of a glass slipper as the clock strikes midnight is not nearly enough.
First of all, the film never makes the case that our Cinderella, Valley high school senior Sam Montgomery (Duff), is truly abused. When her dear dad dies in the Northridge earthquake -- how exactly? we wonder -- her self-indulgent, plastic surgery-obsessed stepmom, Fiona (Jennifer Coolidge in an amusing but over-the-top performance), banishes Sam to the attic and puts her to work in her dad's '50s diner. The trouble is, designer Charles Breen turns that attic into a very cool-looking loft, Sam's paycheck goes to her college education and must we really feel sorry for a girl who complains that she has to drive a "beat-up old car"? The car runs, doesn't it?
Her high school is similarly disconnected from reality but not in the fairy tale sort of way. Not to put too fine a point on it, but Duff is a beauty, and costume designer Denise Wingate does nothing to make her seem otherwise. So why is Sam so unpopular with the boys? They mock her as "Diner Girl" -- what, no one else at school has a job? -- and her only male friend, geeky Carter (Dan Byrd), seems oblivious to her charms as well. Then she puts on a gown and mask and everyone is knocked out by her presence. Go figure.
Her dreamboat is popular football star Austin Ames Chad Michael Murray). He's a good-looking lad, but the script makes him into a boob. He's afraid of his dad, in a dead-end relationship with a shallow cheerleader (Julie Gonzalo), easily cowed by his buddies and unable or unwilling to pursue his Cinderella. They don't make Prince Charmings the way they used to.
Director Mark Rosman and Dunlap search for laughs in all the wrong places. Fiona's complete body makeover with implants, Botox, plastic surgery and a tanning machine earns a few laughs but gets old fast. The slapstick bumbling of Sam's "out-of-step-sisters," Brianna (Madeline Zima) and Gabriella (Andrea Avery), is thoroughly unfunny.
Duff and Byrd anchor the film in a perky though realistic acting style. But too many other actors resort to overblown shtick in a vain attempt to bring cartoonish characters to life. The diner sequences work the best: Regina King, Paul Rodriguez and others form a neat ensemble of characters who work hard, support one another and share a mutual contempt for the owner. Conversely, the sequences in high school or at home feel tired if not belabored.
Tech credits are pro though unexciting.
A Cinderella Story
Warner Bros. Oictures
A Clifford Werber production
Credits:
Director: Mark Rosman
Screenwriter: Leigh Dunlap
Producers: Clifford Werber, Ilyssa Goodman, Hunt Lowry, Dylan Sellers
Executive producers: Michael Rachmil, Peter Greene, Keith Giglio
Director of photography: Anthony B. Richmond
Production designer: Charles Breen
Music: Christophe Beck
Costume designer: Denise Wingate
Editor: Cara Silverman
Cast:
Sam: Hilary Duff
Fiona: Jennifer Coolidge
Austin: Chad Michael Murray
Carter: Dan Byrd
Rhonda: Regina King, Shelby: Julie Gonzalo
Mrs. Wells: Lin Shaye
Brianna: Madeline Zima
Gabriella: Andrea Avery
MPAA rating PG
Running time -- 95 minutes...
- 7/23/2004
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Anonymous Content has tapped Shawn Hopkins, Brian Medavoy and Lainie Stolhanske to join its management ranks. Hopkins joins the management division with a roster of lit clients that includes Burr Steers (Igby Goes Down), Scott Kosar (The Machinist), Laura Cahill (Hysterical Blindness), Tyger Williams (Menace II Society), Leigh Dunlap (A Cinderella Story), Paul Hernandez (Instant Karma), Peter Himmelstein (Lost Boys), Joel Hershman (Greenfingers), Philip Boston (Billabong Odyssey), Greg Pritikin (Dummy) and Joby Harold (Awake). She joins Anonymous from Catch 23 Entertainment. Before that, she spent two years with Rick and Julie Yorn and Artist Management Group. She started her career at ICM.
- 11/12/2003
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
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