Review of A Cinderella Story (2004) by Keenan S — 01 Feb 2015

Well, I will say that it was better than I was expecting it to be. Unfortunately, it's still a bad film. It's not without heart and good intentions, but it suffers from the usual pitfalls that plague these sorts of films. I realize being an adult male probably means I'm not the target audience, but that doesn't mean I'm incapable of enjoying romantic comedies as I have praised several over the last few years.

Romantic comedies have given me some of the best feel-good entertainment of any genre, such as my fondness for Katharine Hepburn, Audrey Hepburn, and Meg Ryan romantic comedies, just to name some. I am in no way above enjoying a so-called "chick flick." Plus, I'm not above enjoying a retelling of the classic Cinderella story, as I gave a 5-star rating to the under-appreciated 1998 Drew Barrymore film, Ever After, which was an absolutely brilliant re-telling of the story filled with humor, romance, and great storytelling that made feel a variety of emotions because it was so well done. In short, that film had everything this film is sorely lacking in.

The story focuses on a girl named Sam, who after losing her father 8 years earlier, now lives with her awful stepmother and stepsisters who treat her like a servant who not only has to clean the house but also work a full-time job at the diner that used to be owned by her father. Though she wants to get into Princeton University and has a flawless grade average, her stepmother doesn't want her to get into college and wants her to forever be a family servant.

During this time, Sam is having secret communications with an unknown boy known as "Nomad" whom she has romantic interest in and seems to have similar interests like getting into Princeton and his own family troubles.

The boy, Austin Ames, is a popular boy at the school and is in a relationship with one of the popular girls, but doesn't seem to like her. He is also having conflicts with his father who wants him to go to U.C.L.A. and take over the family business, which he doesn't want to and wants to go to Princeton instead. He, too, has mutual romantic interest with Sam, though he doesn't know who she is.

Sam, being the unpopular girl that she is, is tormented at school by the popular girls, along with her annoying friend, Carter, who is basically her sidekick. Struggling with her day-to-day life, Sam wonders how she will be able to escape all these things achieve her dreams.

During a conversation with Austin, he suggests that they meet at the school's upcoming Halloween dance, which Sam is reluctant to do. Plus, the idea seems impossible, as her stepmother orders her to work that night, but thanks to a friend from work named Rhonda, they manage to sneak her out, get her a costume, and get her to that party where she has the time of her life with Austin, though he still has no idea who she is because of her mask.

When midnight comes around, Sam leaves the party, much to Austin's dismay so that she can be at the diner before her stepmother arrives. Now, Austin must figure out who she is, while Sam tries to figure out whether or not she should reveal her identity to him.

While I appreciate the attempt to modernize the story, it just doesn't work here. It just falls into the usual cliches and seems content to remain in them, plus its attempts at being hip were awkward and annoying. It also has a bad habit of stuffing its cast members into bland, one-note characters with little personality or development like the stereotypical mean popular kids and the geeky kids.

The acting is rather hit-or-miss, but I will say that I actually really enjoyed Hilary Duff's performance because she was very likable and charming in her performance. I wish she had gotten a much better script to work with because there should have been a much better film built around her performance. Unfortunately, this script acts like cement blocks shackled to her ankles after being thrown overboard. Much like trying to swim with cement blocks attached to your ankles, she puts up a good fight with the script, but in the end, she ends up drowning in the cliches and bad jokes. The other cast members don't fare much better thanks to the script, though they do try their hardest.

As a romantic comedy, it wants so desperately to be feel-good, but ends up feeling too sappy for its own good, and drowns its ideas in syrup and sugar to appeal to young girls. It was hard to care about what was happening with a bad script, boring characters, awful jokes, and overbearing sense of wanting to be touchy-feely goodness to warm a viewer's heart. It just doesn't work for me, I require more from my plots in romantic comedies.

The jokes are mess, unfortunately. It wants to have slapstick and screwball, and it also tries to straddle the line between PG and PG-13 with its humor, but not much of it actually works. There might be an occasional chuckle here and there, but most of it feels uneven and sometimes too childish for their own good.

A Cinderella Story isn't horrible, but it's still not good. While I enjoyed the performance by Hilary Duff, a few of the jokes, and some of its ideas, unfortunately, the script ruins the film with sappy cliches, generally bad jokes, bland characters, and too much syrup for its own good. Watch Ever After instead, as it delivers far more satisfaction in the categories this film failed in.