Penelope 2008
This movie isn’t quite as straightforward as it would seem at first glance, but it is pretty close. Like Beauty and the Beast you have a rich person who is cursed to be ugly until she is loved by one of her own kind. But the curse is just a pig snout and Christina Ricci still looks pretty good even at that. The movie shows people so freaked out by the pig snout that they run screaming, but this is a little hard to take since we see people with physical deformations all the time. They probably needed some more hideous makeup if they wanted to drive the point home. The rest is pretty standard stuff as a boy tries to exploit her by taking her photograph for a tabloid before having remorse, blah, blah, blah.
The performances are over-the-top by just about everyone and Reese Witherspoon’s role is fairly small. This is enjoyable enough to sit through, and it doesn’t play out entirely like you would think, but there are not very many surprises here. Cute. B-
Written: 09 Mar 2008