Ever After

A movie by Andy Tennant

With Drew Barrymore, Anjelica Huston, Dougray Scott, Patrick Godfrey and others

Christina says:

Jakob and Wilhelm Grimm are received by an aged noblewoman (Jeanne Moreau). She congratulates them on their collection of fairy tales, but has a complaint about the tale of Cinderella as recorded by the Grimms. Cinderella was her great-great-grandmother, and the story the lady has to tell differs in some points from the one in our fairy tale books.

France, 16th Century. Danielle (Drew Barrymore), aka Cinderella, has had to live as a maid in her old family home since her father died shortly after marrying baroness Rodmilla of Gent (Anjelica Huston). That part of the story was correct. But Danielle is a little genius who read Thomas More’s "Utopia" at the tender age of eight. And she doesn’t meet her prince Henry (Dougray Scott), Prince of France, at a ball lasting three nights. She impresses him with her erudition and her skill at throwing apples. It’s not the fact that he can’t find her that stands in the way of their love, but his conceit because she is a commoner. But before we get to that Danielle has to fend off several schemes of her stepmother and her stepsister Marguerite (Megan Dodds).

Anjelica Huston is a splendid evil stepmother. This favorite fairy tale stereotype has never been portrayed so complexly. Danielle’s relationship with Rodmilla is more interesting than her relationship with Prince Henry, who seems a bit superfluous now and then. Whatever did she see in him? Granted, he’s rather cute, but also a clumsy oaf and pretty spoiled. Another classic fairy tale motive was turned upside down. This movie features the most extraordinary fairy godmother I’ve ever seen. The king and queen (Timothy West and Judy Parfitt) are eccentric in a sweet way.

In this movie humor takes precedence over romance, humor that occasionally is a bit over the top. The opulent pictures of the Perigord landscape and the colorful fancy-dress ball (oh, yes, there is one) are splendid to watch. The solution of the stepmother-problem is unique, but the 16^th Century French setting could have been done better.

Drew Barrymore is a refreshingly rebellious Cinderella. Considering that fairy tales were supposed to teach children things for their adult life that is more than adequate.

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Christina Gross

Last changes: 01/04/03