Review of Ella Enchanted (2004) by Kathleen P — 02 Dec 2008

I like Anne Hathaway. I liked Princess Diaries and The Devil Wears Prada, and I'm looking forward to Becoming Jane. I also like fantasies, so I thought Ella Enchanted would be perfect. Boy was I wrong.

Ella (Hathaway) is pretty much cursed since birth by her fairy godmother to be obedient, so she always has to follow orders throughout her life no matter how much she disagrees. Some parts were pretty funny, like Ella and her friend protesting at a political speech, descending a wooden escalator that is hand-cranked, and some other silly ways of modernizing the fairy tale world. Cary Elwes was also perfect and hilarious as the evil and scheming uncle of the prince, Sir Edgar. So it wasn't even the horrible CG or the lack of production money put into this thing that annoyed me. What annoyed me about this movie was how stupid the characters were. Ella, even though she's a liberal activist and is supposed to be able to think on her own, really doesn't think hard enough and a lot of bad situations could have been avoided or fought through herself if she just had a little more going on in her head. Minnie Driver's character, Mandy the maid, was also pretty stupid, and not just because her magic came out wrong each time but also because she made the wrong choices and would not think of telling Ella's dad a couple of really obvious, key things about his new wife and her daughters (like how evil they are to his daughter...?!?!). My mom, sister, and I were pretty much yelling at the screen the whole time asking the characters why they were all so stupid.

But if you're in the mood for a pretty brainless, silly fantasy movie with some romance and a moral thrown in, then this is for you. Or if you are much more of a fan of Anne Hathaway than I am, or you want to see Vivica A. Fox as a fairy, or Heidi Klum as a giant, or Minnie Driver as a fairy maid. Otherwise... skip it.