Ella Enchanted has a certain charm that is overplayed, which dims the film from completely adorable to mildly irritating. The film has a delightful opening, sweeping us into a visually appealing rendition of the land of fairytales, a mixture of delicious Irish countryside and movie dust magic, accompanied by the narration of Eric Idle and the mellow tones of the Electric Light Orchestra's Strange Magic. For those of us who loved the 70s, it's right there next to perfect.

Then we meet Ella, who, as a baby, is given the gift of obedience. That means she has to do what she is told. Has to. No choice. Thank God no one tells her to drop dead! The movie could have had a sudden ending, or maybe morph into Snow White. Instead, Ella Enchanted is Cinderella without the Cinders but with lots of other things thrown in instead.

When Ella's mother dies, her father remarries and his new wife has two daughters. The older daughter quickly works out that Ella's obedience and makes the most of it.

Of course there's a prince, named Charmont, Char for short, who is hampered with some issues of his own. He's not quite living the fairytale life, since he's caught up in a Shakespearean plot, revolving around his wicked uncle Edgar. Edgar has his eyes on the throne, and having already killed his brother, Charm's father, he plans on bumping off the young prince so he can wear the crown. In the meantime, as Prince Regent, Edgar has imposed horrid restrictions on the land's natives, enslaving the elves and giants.

Prince Char, who seems to take his character's through-line from Sondheim's Into the Woods is charming but not bright, and doesn't see his uncle's darstedly deeds or covetous eyes. But he does see Ella.

Ella doesn't want to see him particularly, because she's so caught up in the social injustice of the bad uncle's rule, until she sees that influencing the young prince might lead to the realization of her political agenda.

Along with this hodge-podge of fantasy, Shakespeare, and Marx--Karl, not Groucho--are many more cultural references. The setting begins to look more and more pseudo-20th century, including a visit to the mall and merging of modern and medieval in costuming choices. Then there's the music. What worked so effectively in "A Knight's Tale" is employed again in "Ella Enchanted" with less success. While crashing a wedding, Ella is told to sing and breaks out into a rendition of Queen's "Somebody To Love" that is so wincingly bad it made me want to shield my eyes. However, it is at least better than the final "Don't go breaking my heart" which has to be some of the worst singing and choreography known to cinema.

So, there's a lot going on in Ella Enchanted, too much in my mind, since all the ingredients don't seem to blend together. At worst, this movie is like bubble Śn' squeak, a mess of leftovers thrown together in a pot‹it looks bad and tastes worse. But really Ella Enchanted is more of a mixed salad. If you spit out the parts you don't care for, there's probably something left to like.


Home || Complete list of reviews