Movie Notes: Enchanted

October 19th, 2008

= 4 stars

Starring Amy Adams, Patrick Dempsey, James Marsden
Directed by Kevin Lima

Synopsis

Princess Giselle (Amy Adams) is about to marry Prince Edward (James Marsden) when she’s abruptly booted from the cartoon world to real-world New York City. Unromantic divorce lawyer Robert (Patrick Dempsey) winds up befriending her. Hilartiy ensues.

The Good

• I found Amy Adams charming in both Junebug and Miss Pettigrew Lives For A Day, and well, here’s another birdie feather in her cap. She pretty much carries the entire film playing the daffy princess Gisele and her innocent confusion at entering the gruff, cynical real world. She channels all the dorky Disney heroine cliches yet makes her character work as a romantic comedy partner to Patrick Dempsey, who plays everything straight. Amazingly, she pulls it off. Oh, and she sings, too — sigh.
• Threads the thin thread of satire through the needle of celebration. The best examples are the cheesy Disney cartoon style musical numbers that play out in real life. It’s possible to both enjoy and laugh at them simultaneously — no mean feat.
• The fish-out-of-water situation taken to extremes is actually quite common (Splash, Kate & Leopold, 50 First Dates, Cool World), usually to very mixed results. Enchanted doesn’t work all of the time, but it hits more often than it misses.
• About half way through, I began worrying that there was no possible way for this film to end properly. Amazingly, it’s wrapped up in as convincing a manner that can be expected given the circumstances. I mean, there are talking squirrels in this freaking flick.

The Bad

• The evil queen (Susan Sarandon) is a bit superfluous, and her conclusion via the CGI dragon was rather unnecessary.

Conclusion

Yes, this flick seems targeted squarely at a particular female demographic (what with “McDreamy” and cute birds and chipmunks), but I found it surprisingly good. It’s a dorky chick flick that’s well aware of its dorkiness, and plays it up for laughs. Yet despite the eyeball rolling and satire, it still manages to capture that sunny, heartwarming feeling of a classic Disney animation feature. It’s too easy to say this film was “enchanting” — but in this case, it’s true. The women can have “McDreamy” but I think that Adams cast a spell on me.

IMDB: Enchanted
Wikipedia: Enchanted
Rotten Tomatoes: Enchanted 93%