It being a cold drizzly day within the Octave of Christmas, all the new Lego sets having been built, the cousins departed and the 500-piece puzzle completed, what choice was there but to go to the movies today? On the recommendation of numerous others, we chose Enchanted.I'm compelled to deliver a mixed review.
Boys:
4-yr-old: It was too scary.
7-yr-old: It was sort of okay. Way too much smooching.
11-yr-old: Not as good as I thought it was going to be.
Girl:
9-yr-old: (dreamily) I loved it. Especially the dresses.
My own review is likewise mixed. It's quite clever and well-observed, with affectionate winks at all the Disney classics you grew up with, and it has the virtue of not being cynical. It's sort of a cross between Princess Bride (the fairy-tale come to life part) and Miracle on 34th Street (the hardened single parent shuts all the magic out of life part). Leaving the theater I asked the kids what they thought the movie's message was and they said without having to think about it, "Divorce is bad." Which is right on; it's a wonderful defense of marriage. And Amy Adams (pictured above) is that rare contemporary actress who can actually play innocence (most actresses can only play it ironically, which completely spoils things). So I would like to give it a rave.
However, it is rather girly: all about romance and finding one's true love. And why, in a movie about the value of innocence, marketed to innocents, must the makers plunk in a scene in which Giselle (the fairy-tale princess) trips on her way out of the shower, landing suggestively on her host? Naturally this happens at the exact moment his girlfriend walks in, she assumes the worst and complains to him about never getting to sleep over herself --all this right in front of his 6-yr-old daughter. Strikes me as a dubious way of establishing the chastity of all concerned, and completely unnecessary. There are two suggestive homosexual jokes, too --mild and amusing, but, again, why must coarse adult behavior --even when repudiated-- find its way into a kids' movie, even a PG-rated one? And there's the poop joke and equally obligatory animal urination scene --and we get to actually see the urine! Yay! These departures from taste seriously mar a bit of saccharine good fun.
For a bit more about the film's craft, try this, which I stumbled onto at Rotten Tomatoes (language alert).
