Review

Review Date: 25-November-07
Spoiler Rating: Medium
Juju Judgment: Juicy

Enchanted (2007)

The poisoned side of the apple is, "Enchanted" is not as funny or silly as its trailer would have you believe. Billed by Disney as a winking contrast between its traditional princess stories and real-life contemporary New York, the picture seemed poised to mock the very goody-two-shoes line that turned the Mouse House into a fortress. But there is not enough winking in this tale of a musical maiden named Giselle who is banished from her two-dimensional (animated) world minutes before her wedding to a prince and lands in the three-dimensional (live-action) world of Manhattan. Bedraggled and bewildered, she is reluctantly taken in by what passes for a prince in our day and age: a divorce lawyer (Patrick Dempsey) with great hair who has a fat-cheeked, high-voiced little girl; a too-skinny, somewhat masculine fiancée; and a crippling burden of cynicism. These engage in mass-market "romantic" shenanigans while the prince (James Marsden) pursues his bride along with a talking chipmunk, a dopey double-crosser (Timothy Spall), and the evil witch who precipitated the adventure in the first place (an underused Susan Sarandon). Comic moments do ensue, as when Giselle attempts her usual summons of woodland creatures and ends up with an army of cockroaches, rats, and pigeons doing housework. By and large, however, the proceedings emit a stale aroma of ka-ching, the setup for storefuls of pooping chipmunk pencil holders, lovelorn prince training pants, and Giselle dolls in various gowns and poses (the Central Park Hot Dog collection, the Collectors' Vermin Edition, etc.).

The healthy side of the apple is, "Enchanted" is still a decent break from the holiday bustle and a light contributor to the holiday spirit. If Disney genes are to blame for its foibles, the leading lady gets credit for its charm. Amy Adams is simply irresistible as Giselle. She endows the flesh-and-blood heroine with a sweetness that no animated darling could sell. Just watch her face as she shares the curbside rest of a bum or absorbs the concept of a dinner date. She even negotiates the script's balancing act between Giselle's corruption by our world and embrace/betterment of it. Any story that gives such a honey a happy ending cannot help but produce warm-fuzzies, and so it is with "Enchanted." A spoonful of genuine innocence and goodness helps the true-love-kiss crap go down.

Copyright © 2007 The Jujube (M. I. Kim). All rights reserved.