The Cinderella tale revised (and some may say improved upon) by turning the title character into a 16th Century servant girl with a feisty spirit, an educated mind, and a fearsome right hook! Drew Barrymore vacillates between victimized puppy, coy young woman and pre-feminist challenger in the lead, convincing the Prince of France that she's of nobility while captivating him with her inner-strength; still, she's fetching, despite an uneven accent and too many movie-star close-ups of her self-conscious smile. Anjelica Huston is perfectly fine as the hissably evil stepmother (she's appropriately contemptible without stepping over into camp) and Dougray Scott is the twinkling Prince (with an over-sized codpiece which seems like a sight-gag nobody took note of). Lovely locations and production design, though the film disappoints by cheating us out of two very important moments--an escape and a ceremony--and by stretching this tale out a tad too long. ** from ****
Review of Ever After: A Cinderella Story
