Actually, when I watch a movie, I look for depth, but I knew from the start that I was not going to find it in A Cinderella Story – another retelling of this Charles Perrault fairy tale, which had been done on stage, as a ballet, on television in practically every nation and many, many times on the big screen as an animation or with actors (among them, Leslie Caron in The Glass Slipper and Jennifer Beals in Cinderella in 1985). Mercifully, it has yet to be done on porn – or is there one and I just missed it?
As I waited for A Cinderella Story to begin, I began wondering if there is a shortage of story ideas among screenwriters in Hollywood, which was why they had to do an adaptation of this famous fairy tale. Before I could think any further, the film started rolling and got my attention because, well, they’re putting a new twist into it by having it set in San Fernando Valley in California – in an era with modern technology like cellphones and e-mail.
And so we meet our heroine, Sam (Hilary Duff) whose mother had died earlier and is having a wonderful life with her beloved Dad – until he gives her a stepmother and two stepsisters. Dad, of course, dies (in the great North Ridge earthquake) and stepmom (played by Jennifer Coolidge) takes over the family-owned diner (set up by Sam‘s father) and makes a servant out of our heroine.
The stepmother, at least, allows Sam to attend high school in between chores at home and in the diner. A straight A student, she pines to enter Princeton for college, but while in purgatory with stepmother, she has to live a Cinderella-like life at home and in school, where the school jocks and the more glamorous female students all make fun of her. Her only consolation in life is the fact that she has a family among the diner employees and that she has a chat-mate who later turns out to be the most popular school jock, Austin Ames (Chad Michael Murray).
And so we have the Halloween ball, but instead of a fairy godmother giving her the magical makeover, we have the diner manager (Regina King) lending Sam a wedding gown – and for her carriage, the car of her best friend Dan Byrd.
At the ball, she is, of course, the most fabulous and her prince, Austin Ames, drools over her like crazy. But guess what she leaves behind in lieu of a glass slipper? A cellphone.
Toward the end, the true identity of the Cinderella is found out by the prince, but surprise, surprise, it is also discovered that the prince is a heel.
But then, this is a fairy tale and is supposed to have a happy ending – and so Cinderella Sam drives to Princeton with her prince for their college studies. And what becomes of her stepmother and her stepsisters? Our Cinderella doesn’t turn out to be so magnanimous after all and gives them a dose of their medicine. Tit for tat.
At the start, the film is still interesting because of the twist given to the fairy tale, but the interest simmers eventually because this movie, to begin with, is basically bankrupt of fresh ideas. Why does it have to borrow the Cinderella story in the first place?
In spite of the lack of creativity, the film isn’t really all that bad (but I’m not saying it’s good either). For one thing, I thought Jennifer Coolidge was effective as the stepmother who has every part of her anatomy tampered with science (botox, liposuction, breast augmentation, etc.) And then, I also liked the camaraderie of the people who work at the diner and the way they support and rally behind Sam. Of course, there are also funny moments in the movie, particularly that car wash scene with the evil stepsisters.
The way to enjoy the movie is not to take it seriously. Just get yourself a bag of popcorn and relax your way through it. Yes, you can completely relax your mind here because it is a film that won’t require thinking.
All in all, I don’t really regret watching A Cinderella Story. But shucks, I shouldn’t have missed the screening time of The Village.