Film Review: Enchanted

by Philip Key, Liverpool Daily Post

Enchanted, (Cert PG, 107 mins)
Stars: Amy Adams, James Marsden, Idina Menzel, Susan Sarandon, Patrick Dempsey, Timothy Spall, Julie Andrews
Directed by Kevin Lima

I DID not enjoy this movie. So why, you may ask, have I given it four stars? The simple answer is that it was not made for a cynical, old critic like myself.

As a family film for the Christmas market, it is ideal, full of simple, jolly characters with nice teeth and an unusual storyline.

The gimmick, if one can call it that (high concept in movie jargon), is to transfer some old-fashioned Disney characters in to the real world.

It opens with typical fairytale animation with a princess looking for a man, the man arriving in the shape of a dashing prince and a wicked step-mother wanting to put an end to the match.

Oh, there is also a comic sidekick and a chipmunk.

It is all very sweet in the Disney Snow White mode, with woodland animals scampering around as Princess Giselle’s friends and comedy sidekick Nathaniel being clumsy and goofy.

The Stepmother decides to send Giselle to a world where there is no Happy Ever After and pushes her down a well. She emerges in New York – Times Square, to be exact – popping up from a manhole to the bewilderment of hard-hatted workmen (and apparent amusement of bystanders presumably lining the pavement to watch the filming).

Now Giselle is no longer a cartoon character but played by Amy Adams, attired in the same big dress outfit.

She gets caught in a rainstorm, robbed and finally spotted climbing a building by lawyer Robert (Patrick Dempsey) and his young daughter Morgan (Rachel Covey).

Robert thinks Giselle is nuts, Morgan is delighted to meet a princess.

So, as is the way of things, Patrick puts her up for the night.

Complications arrive in the shape of the Prince Edward (James Marsden) who emerges from the same manhole looking for his princess, similarly turned from cartoon into a human person and attired in full Disney Prince outfit.

Soon they are all joined by goofy Nathaniel (Timothy Spall looking exactly like his cartoon other being) and the chipmunk, alas not real but computer animated as if he were.

Robert’s girlfriend Nancy (Idina Menzel) is not impressed with finding another woman at her boyfriend’s house and the usual misunderstandings arise. The thrust of the film is: which one will Robert choose, princess or girlfriend?

Frankly, I did not care. The so-called “real” world is typically Hollywood, peopled by rich, incredibly good-looking people with good jobs living in luxury apartments and attending balls.

The story itself is sugary-sweet with the usual tinkling piano, sweeping strings accompaniment and nothing really nasty happens. OK, Nathaniel does try to poison Giselle with an apple on the stepmother’s instructions (played by Susan Sarandon, who also arrives in New York) but that can hardly be taken seriously.

There are a handful of good gags and the principals seem to be having a ball, but it seems to me an opportunity was missed in not putting these cartoon characters into a proper real world where horrible things happen .

As it is, the cartoon characters move from one fantasy land to another.

That said, the kids will probably enjoy it and parents won’t be too bored. I was just disappointed that a good idea became a formula Hollywood romantic comedy.

philkey@dailypost.co.uk