I have absolutely no problem with a revisionist, "feminist" retelling of the Cinderella story in which the heroine is a more assertive and self-reliant character -- as long as it's well done. The problem is that "well done" is not a phrase I would use with regard to "Ever After." I suppose it's an OK movie if you're a 13-year-old girl, but it is an insult to the intelligence of any adult viewer, male or female.
The movie is ALMOST worth seeing for the wonderful performances of the radiant Drew Barrymore as Danielle (the Cinderella character) and the deliciously wicked Anjelica Huston as the stepmother, Baroness Rodmilla de Ghent. (Then again, I saw it on cable and didn't even pay the price of the rental.) But these fine talents are wasted by an inane script with banal dialogue, characters who are both improbable and trite, and absolutely no sense of historical reality.
I understand, of course, that this is not a historical film and is based on a fairy tale. Yet the filmmakers chose to move it to a concrete setting in 16th Century France, and to introduce such real-life characters as King Francois I and Leonardo da Vinci. If they do that, they should make at least a minimal effort to strive for some historical accuracy. Yet the royal couple behaves more like modern upper-middle-class American parents; what we get here is a family with all the glamour of royalty and none of its class prejudices. There's also a lot of confusion about the heroine's social status. She is repeatedly described as a commoner, yet her name is "Danielle de Barberac"; the "de" is generally a signifier of nobility. In fact, normally under the laws of that time, if the Baroness had married a commoner, she would have assumed her husband's status and become a commoner herself (and if Danielle was a commoner, so was her father).
I don't mind Cinderella being reinvented as feisty, independent or educated. However, when she is turned into an intellectual, a champion of social justice, AND an amateur athlete and swordwoman all wrapped into one ... well, that's a bit much.
*** SPOILERS AHEAD***
I can accept the scene where Danielle rescues Prince Henry from the gypsies by hoisting him on her back and walking off (after the gypsy leader promises that she can leave with anything she can carry). In fact, I don't know if the filmmakers knew this but this scene resembles an allegedly true story from the Middle Ages when a city was under siege by an enemy force, and as part of the terms of surrender, the leader of the enemy forces promised to let all the women leave town, taking away anything they could carry. The women walked out of the city carrying their husbands on their backs.
On the other hand, the scene where Danielle gets away from the evil aristocrat to whom the stepmother has sold her as a slave is simply laughable. She holds a rapier to his throat, forces him to hand over the key to the shackles he has put on her, and simply walks out of his castle free as a bird. How ridiculous. The moment the rapier wasn't at his throat anymore, he would have simply either run after her, tackled her and thrown her to the ground, or called his servants who would have grabbed her. I guess it was so important to make sure that she wasn't rescued by the prince but rescued herself that reality could fall completely by the wayside.
The movie is ALMOST worth seeing for the wonderful performances of the radiant Drew Barrymore as Danielle (the Cinderella character) and the deliciously wicked Anjelica Huston as the stepmother, Baroness Rodmilla de Ghent. (Then again, I saw it on cable and didn't even pay the price of the rental.) But these fine talents are wasted by an inane script with banal dialogue, characters who are both improbable and trite, and absolutely no sense of historical reality.
I understand, of course, that this is not a historical film and is based on a fairy tale. Yet the filmmakers chose to move it to a concrete setting in 16th Century France, and to introduce such real-life characters as King Francois I and Leonardo da Vinci. If they do that, they should make at least a minimal effort to strive for some historical accuracy. Yet the royal couple behaves more like modern upper-middle-class American parents; what we get here is a family with all the glamour of royalty and none of its class prejudices. There's also a lot of confusion about the heroine's social status. She is repeatedly described as a commoner, yet her name is "Danielle de Barberac"; the "de" is generally a signifier of nobility. In fact, normally under the laws of that time, if the Baroness had married a commoner, she would have assumed her husband's status and become a commoner herself (and if Danielle was a commoner, so was her father).
I don't mind Cinderella being reinvented as feisty, independent or educated. However, when she is turned into an intellectual, a champion of social justice, AND an amateur athlete and swordwoman all wrapped into one ... well, that's a bit much.
*** SPOILERS AHEAD***
I can accept the scene where Danielle rescues Prince Henry from the gypsies by hoisting him on her back and walking off (after the gypsy leader promises that she can leave with anything she can carry). In fact, I don't know if the filmmakers knew this but this scene resembles an allegedly true story from the Middle Ages when a city was under siege by an enemy force, and as part of the terms of surrender, the leader of the enemy forces promised to let all the women leave town, taking away anything they could carry. The women walked out of the city carrying their husbands on their backs.
On the other hand, the scene where Danielle gets away from the evil aristocrat to whom the stepmother has sold her as a slave is simply laughable. She holds a rapier to his throat, forces him to hand over the key to the shackles he has put on her, and simply walks out of his castle free as a bird. How ridiculous. The moment the rapier wasn't at his throat anymore, he would have simply either run after her, tackled her and thrown her to the ground, or called his servants who would have grabbed her. I guess it was so important to make sure that she wasn't rescued by the prince but rescued herself that reality could fall completely by the wayside.