Review of Enchanted (2007) by Kevin P — 01 Sep 2018

Strengths: The film is aptly titled, because Amy Adams (Giselle) is enchanting as the lead. Her performance is very strong and the character is great. She learns a lot throughout the film. The plot allows her to go from hopelessly optimistic cartoonish girl into someone who still romanticizes those things, but does so in a way that is more realistic. Her growth is the true star of the movie. James Marsden (Prince Edward) gives one of his funniest performances ever. He completely jumps into the absurdity of his character and makes it work in a way it otherwise wouldn't have. The movie does a good job playing off the tropes we've come to expect in fairytales. Doing that is perfect when your entire plot is based around taking the overly fairytale things out of the protagonist. As usual, Disney did well with things like music and costumes.

Weaknesses: Though I appreciated that Giselle doesn't end up with the prince, I didn't enjoy the relationship she ends up in. First, if they really wanted to twist the fairytale stuff, she could've finished things alone. If they had to go the route they did, it would've helped to have someone with charisma in the role. Patrick Dempsey (Robert Phillip) have a performance that was as bland as his character's name. The dialogue throughout the film was mostly lackluster outside of Giselle. Almost every scene involving the squirrel featured mediocre animation and wasn't as funny or cute as the creators seemed to intend.

Overall: I heard a ton of great things about this movie. While I can see the appeal, it has too many issues to be great. The things that click do so very well, but when the film misses, it does so by a lot.