Montauk Pioneer - May 2, 2008 -Library Movie Review

The Friends of the Montauk Library had a showing of the movie "Enchanted" last Friday evening. The movie stars the one and only Mr. Mc Dreamy from "Grey's Anatomy," Patrick Dempsey and the beautiful Cinderella-like Princess Ms. Amy Adams. Whenever a story begins "Once Upon A Time" I know that the story will have a happily ever after ending. I've been called "Pollyanna" myself, and have been told that I sometimes live in "La la Land" because I am such an optimist and I am one of the few left who still believes in fairy tales such as finding one's true love or a Prince Charming.

The movie was a combination of Snow White, Sleeping Beauty and Cinderella, all in one. It starts out as a cartoon in a fantasy land called Andalasia, with a wicked stepmother Queen Narissa, brilliantly played by Susan Sarandon, who wants to prevent her stepson, Prince Edward, (James Marsden) from falling in love and getting married to Princess Giselle, perfectly portrayed by Amy Adams.

To prevent the marriage from taking place, Queen Narissa uses her magic powers to get rid of Giselle by banishing her into the terrible world: a manhole in the middle of Times Square, New York City. At this point, the Princess turns into a real person with long, blonde curls. She ends up wandering around town dressed in her Cinderella white gown, feeling lost. As she comes out of the subway, she sees a cardboard poster ad of a castle and finds herself knocking at the door. Enter Robert Philip, a divorce lawyer, handsomely played by Patrick Dempsey, with his daughter Morgan (Rachel Covey), who convinces her father to rescue the Princess from the terrible rainstorm and puts her up in their 116th Street Riverside Apartment.

What complicates the storyline is that Nancy Tremaine (Idina Menzel) is engaged to Robert and finds Giselle wrapped in a towel, entangled with Robert on the bathroom floor. The triangle begins. The more Robert spends time with Giselle, the more he realizes, through her optimistic outlook on life, that perhaps true love does exist. Robert was hurt before by his wife's leaving him to take care of Morgan alone.

There were several scenes that stood out for me. The cleaning of Robert's messy apartment by flies, rats, cockroaches and pigeons after being summoned by Giselle singing out the window. It was very graphic to look at, but funny at the same time seeing all the little creatures running about such as the Central Park scene that included many extras dancing, singing and frolicking all over. The Ballroom Dance scene, reminiscent of Cinderella's Ball with Giselle coming down the stairs dressed in her beautiful, simple mauve gown, accompanied by Prince Edward. Robert, who came with Nancy, finds himself smitten by Giselle's beauty and falls in love with her after their eyes meet.

After several failed attempts to kill Giselle, a poison apple finally catches up with Gisell as she takes a bite given by Queen Narissa disguised as an old witch. Giselle faints and falls into a deep sleep with a spell. The only person that could wake her up is her true love's kiss. When Prince Edward's kiss failed, Robert bent down to kiss her before the last stroke of midnight and Giselle awoke. The Queen, terribly upset, turns into a huge blue dragon and kidnaps Robert. In the meantime, Giselle drops her glass slipper trying to rescue Robert. Nancy then picks it up and tries it on at Prince Edward' request. She then sees that it fits and the two fall in love. They go back to Andalasia, get married and live happily ever after.

Throughout the movie, we see Giselle's friend Pip, the chipmunk, trying to warn her about the Queen's plot of wanting her dead. The audience knows that Pip is CG-animated, yet he is still believable as a character. Nathaniel, (Timothy Spall) as the Queen and Prince's servant who tries to carry out the Queen's wish of poisoning the Princess was quite entertaining through his many disguises.

Walt Disney Pictures, with the Director Kevin Lima, screenwriter Bill Kelly, music by Alan Menken and Stephen Schwartz, costume designer Mona May and Narrator Julie Andrews certainly outdid themselves. Giselle's singing all of the wonderful fairy tale songs was a breath of fresh air. She got the cartoon movement down pat even when she was real. The elaborate costumes were just as I expected and New York City, with all its diversity, was the perfect choice for this film.

I really enjoyed this movie. The Library even provided us with popcorn and mats for the children who wanted one. I was glad that Giselle ended marrying Robert, her true love, instead of the "real" Prince. I did.