A modern-day fairy tale about self-love and being true to yourself. As cheesy as that sounds, this movie was great. It's a feel-good movie and an good entertainer. (James McAvoy doesn't hurt the equation either, I have to admit.) Christina Ricci can sometimes get on my nerves, but not a bit in this movie. I thought she was wonderful as the young woman from old money born with a curse-- the snout of a pig.
The look and feel of the movie is great. It's set in the modern day, but in an alternate world. You can't really place it, and the ambiguity adds to its charm. It maintains the feeling of a TRUE fairy tale; it's not just a "fairy tale romance" which is often synonymous for a crap movie. I can imagine telling this story while putting a kid to bed. Penelope's narration helps set this tone at the beginning as she tells the background of how her family became cursed. Because an ancestor loved the servant girl, who later "fell off a cliff" when she was rejected by his rich relations, the town witch, her mother, placed a curse on the family. The first girl born to the family would bear the curse that could only be broken if she were truly loved by "one of her own kind."
Her mother hides her away from the world to "protect" her and when she turns 18, sets up a steady stream of rich blue-bloods to come to the house and break the curse. They even set a high dowry to attract more suitors. However, every time Penelope shows herself, the young men flee (through closed second-story windows, no less!)
Penelope's world is full of whimsical elements; the production design gets a major nod from me. (To get an idea, think Lemony Snicket, but far brighter, not in the least creepy. Or even Tim Burton, were he not emotionally disturbed.) I loved all the color, especially in Penelope's room, which is really her world. It is starkly different from the rest of the house which is very formal and clean. Her room is a colorful, low-lit, cluttered place, filled with childhood toys, fake windows with scenes of pyramids, a rope swing, and.... a two-way mirror looking out into the parlor where Penelope's suitors meet her without being able to see her. This was one of my favorite devices.
Here, she is playing chess with suitor Max, and I LOVED this scene and the way it contrasted her personality with that of her family. You can see her side is lit differently, has bolder color, mostly reds and celery green, while the parlor is brightly lit, sterile, cold, and the color palette is white, grey, and blue. On her side there are also items under bell jars, which I thought was interesting, because in a way, she is under glass herself. (Also note what looks like a rose under the bell jar to her left in the picture... bit of a visual reference to Beauty and the Beast don't you think?)
Max is hired by a little person reporter (who lost an eye in pursuit of Penelope's picture) and Edward, massive git of a suitor, who saw her face and got away before her mother could force him to sign the gag order. As a down and out blue-blood with a gambling problem, they pay him to get in and snap a photo with a secret camera hidden in his jacket. The scenes with Max and Penelope interacting through the glass are really charming. I loved them. I am really impressed with James McAvoy's acting here because he manages to show us a comfortable, easy friendship (and something more?) growing for Penelope without ever directly interacting with her.
now just for some basic plot... There isn't a lot more to say critically. Maybe if I had the opportunity to watch it again, but I'm poor and not spending the money. lol.
When she finally does reveal herself to him, he is startled and accidentally triggers the hidden camera. She runs, he chases.... and she asks him to marry her. He awkwardly asks what would happen if the curse weren't broken... what would happen if marrying him wouldn't fix it. She protests that it will, but with no luck. Max leaves.
After this most painful rejection of all, Penelope runs away from home. Discovering the outside world while hiding her snout behind a scarf, Penelope's journey makes you want to stop and appreciate the little things. As she throws open the gate to her parents' estate, the whole city looms up in front of her and you feel how huge what she has been missing is. This is another really cool shot that I loved. The buildings seem to grow up out of the ground at impossibly high angles, all crowding together. I wish I could find a screen cap of it, I love it.
While Penelope's parents (read: Mother) are frantically searching the city for their daughter, she is doing just fine and enjoying a taste of real life. (and beer on tap... through a straw) Max is working on paying back the money he was given to get her picture, not wanting to have any part of it. This middle section isn't the best. Lots of stuff is going on, Penelope reveals herself to the world and it loves her, Max is working and no longer gambling, slime-ball Edward is eating crow, etc.
(This is where the spoilers kick in big time, so I recommend you read no further if you haven't seen it and want to.)
Then, predictably, Edward as part of his penance proposes to Penelope, although he is still disgusted by her appearance. (jerk) I have to say this as well-- I have heard some people complain about this, that it is predictable, Edward is too through-and-through bad... blah, blah, blah. I don't remember many multi-faceted villains from the fairy tales that were read to me. So, it WORKS, people. Stop being snobby about it. Lemon, the relentless reporter finds a heart somewhere in his little chest.... Max- well, we'll get there... but you can't have everyone reform in a fairy tale. There has to be a bad guy. Edward is that guy!
::steps off soapbox:: a-hem. Now where was I?
Penelope runs away from the wedding, back into her bedroom that was for so long her whole world. Mom, naturally, chases her, while Edward is visibly relieved that he has been let off the hook. Penelope finally lets her mother have it: "I like myself the way I am!" And wham. There went the curse. Now, this I do have a bit of a problem with. She likes herself the way she is, so she changes? I wish it had been: I like myself the way I am... and she looks exactly the same because her nose is no longer a curse to her. But that's just me. And honestly, it wouldn't have been very fairy tale. But then again, even in Beauty and the Beast, as a kid and even today I am sad to see him change from the beast to the prince. Maybe I am just weird. Anyhoo, the whole time someone of her own kind just had to love her. Not necessarily romantically, just genuine love from one of her own. This does get some major guilt going for Mom and Dad... but I feel that more could have been done with it. I wish they had gone just a smidge further. Everyone is surprised that they actually miss her snout. Her mother's mantra "You aren't your nose" takes on a whole new meaning.
Oh! And in the meantime, a shocking discovery is made by Lemon. He got the wrong guy. "Max" is really Johnny, not a blue-blood at all, who left because of the guilt of knowing that he couldn't break the curse. Lemon shares his mistake with the family. In the end, at Halloween, after the mysterious disappearance of Penelope, the pig-nosed girl is the costume of choice. Reese Witherspoon's character has tracked down Johnny and brings Penelope to see him. Wearing a Penelope mask, the real Penelope goes to his room above a dance hall. Reese Witherspoon's character shoves her through the door sharply asking if he has a bathroom she can use... and leaves Penelope standing there. Johnny is in the process of packing, bitter and determined to get away from the fact that he couldn't do anything for the girl that we know he had come to love. Through their little conversation, flickers of confusion go over his face as he thinks he recognizes her. When she admits who she is, he kisses her before she can even get the mask off-- he doesn't know that the curse is lifted. I really liked that. It made up for the fact that she got a normal nose. He loved her with the nose for who she truly was.
(Spoilers over)
What I loved about this movie was how it looked. I loved that it really WAS a modern-day fairy tale. I thought it was a brave idea. (How many actresses would sign up to wear a pig snout for over an hour of film?) It is not an attempt at high art, but it is truly entertaining and a good family movie. Acting-wise.... It's James McAvoy's show. Christina Ricci is good, she's sweet, but her character doesn't have as much to do as McAvoy's, in my opinion. Caroline O'Hara is a great psycho mom, but we've seen it before. I *loved* Peter Dinklage as Lemon the reporter as well.
This movie snob liked it. But only because I totally bought into the fairy tale, bedtime story premise from the get-go.
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