rating:
(out of
4 stars)United States; 2007
Directed by Kevin Lima; produced by Barry Josephson, Barry Sonnenfeld; written by Bill Kelly
Starring Amy Adams, Patrick Dempsey, James Marsden, Timothy Spall, Susan Sarandon, Idina Menzel, Julie Andrews (voice)
'Enchanted' is indeed the most enchanting film of the year. It's Disney making fun of the Disney animated fairytale. Cleverly written, the story uses every cliché from the animated world, puts it into a real life fantasy adventure, and turns those clichés into a wonderfully original tale. The lovely Amy Adams ('Junebug') stars as the princess Giselle, send from animation to New York by an evil queen. Her performance is perfect.
In New York she meets Robert (Patrick Dempsey), who, of course, thinks she is seriously ill. In her world all is great and beautiful, whether it's a hot dog or a divorcing couple. She is followed from the animated world by Prince Edward (James Marsden) and the chipmunk Pip, who has lost his ability to speak in the real world. As a sidekick the character is hilarious. They want to get her back. Not only Robert could be a problem, the evil queen (Susan Sarandon) and her servant Nathaniel (Timothy Spall) try to prevent this at any cost.
I always find it kind of amazing if a film is able to make fun of something while being a perfect example of the genre itself. 'The Princess Bride' did it with the fantasy film, 'Scream' with the slasher horror. And now we have 'Enchanted' doing it for the romantic fairytale, which it really is. The comedy is not pushed; many jokes are quite subtle and fit the screenplay instead of being forced into it. Some of them are like that too, especially concerning the animals, but a laugh is a laugh, and the film gets plenty of those.
Amy Adams is responsible of many of them. Her timing is flawless when it comes to delivering lines directly from fairytales. She impressed me in 'Junebug', and in 2007 she has won my heart with both 'Charlie Wilson's War' and 'Enchanted'. I can't imagine sombeone doing a better job than she did here. For me it was simply one of the most enjoyable films of the year (and I already liked 'Stardust', in a way using the same approach) and the presence of Adams is a very important contribution.