Wednesday, August 27, 2008

Movie Review: Penelope

Penelope was actually quite a pleasant surprise. I'm obligated to love Christina Ricci, as her onscreen, adolescent angst corresponded with the budding of my own offscreen angst...but as an adult, she has proven herself to be an inconsistent actress. However, there's something about her huge brown eyes in this movie that make you ignore her rather annoying way of speaking (has her voice gotten higher as she's gotten older?) and fall hopelessly in love with her innocence and spunk. James McAvoy is, as always, beautiful and brilliant as the main love interest, and not surprisingly at all, Reese Witherspoon stands out even in the smallest of roles.

The movie calls itself a modern day fairy tale and like a fairy tale, is a thinly veiled moral lesson, as anyone can see that this hideous pig-faced girl is a hottie and not the monster all of the characters in the film make her out to be. But the film's higher goalss never seem forced or too over-bearing, as the tone is always light and sweet, a necessity if the audience is not to be offended. Consider this a delicious, healthy cupcake, with slightly too sweet frosting.

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