Ever After: A Cinderella Story
“Ever After” is a modern movie in a lot of ways save for its’ setting, which fits the traditional ideals of the Grimm fairy tale. It’s very much a ’90s movie in its’ feminist philosophy and characterization of Danielle (Drew Barrymore), who was the inspiration for an old woman (Jeanne Moreau) to tell the story to the Grimms in the first place.
You basically know the story, but it’s the ways that Andy Tennant’s film tells it that draw you in. So we have a Prince Charming (Dougray Scott) is less a pampered son of aristocracy and more a rebellious youth who is allowed as much personality as Danielle herself, and her stepmother (Angelica Huston) and stepsisters (snobbish Megan Dodds and daffy Melanie Lynskey) are not without a soft side…well, for a few moments at least.
Nowadays, Tennant is best known for such predictable efforts as “The Bounty Hunter,” “Hitch,” “Fool’s Gold,” and “Sweet Home Alabama.” I know- where did the director who made such an enchanting romantic adventure go? Lost in the typical Hollywood machine like so many others before him. Of course, on this film he had a smart and enlightened script he collaborated on with Susannah Grant (“Erin Brockovich”) and Rick Parks…
…and he had Drew Barrymore. Here’s an actress, the latest in an acting dynasty that goes back to many of the great classics, whose teen years after she broke out in “E.T.” were like many others, but who has found her footing as a young woman in films as an actress and producer (and now director, although I still haven’t seen “Whip It”) of the “Charlie’s Angels” films, “Music and Lyrics,” “Never Been Kissed,” and two Adam Sandler romantic comedies (“The Wedding Singer,” “50 First Dates”) that are among both’s best. Admittedly, her record is spotty, but her characters are very much alike. They have many strength and intelligence, but many times it’s hidden beneath wells of insecurity brought upon by past pains and conditions.
Her Danielle fits in perfectly with this series of characters. She’s been forced into servitude by her stepmother after the death of her father ten years earlier. But that’s only made her resolve greater for a more satisfying life, and whether it’s using some money she’s given by Scott’s Henry to free the husband of one of her father’s workers or bargaining with gypsies in one of the most entertaining moments in the film, Barrymore shows the strength underneath that grows more assured the closer she gets to Henry, whom Scott imbues with swashbuckling swagger and perplexity in how Danielle makes him feel. The couple’s scenes with Leonardo Di Vinci (Patrick Godfrey) are entertaining and enlightening in showing their own spirit.
It took many years for me to finally watch “Ever After,” but it was well worth the wait. Between the performances of Barrymore and Scott, the lush production enhanced by the music by George Fenton, and the energy and heart of the whole film, this is a story that makes the old new, and a romance that captures the fantasy and delight of a classic story delivered with life and ravishing soul.
