Enchanted

It's not exactly a secret that the gentleman who runs this blog is head over heels in love with Amy Adams, the beautiful, charming and extremely talented redhead who has finally emerged as an A-list star in the last year or so. For that reason, I finally got around to watch her star-making turn in Disney's Enchanted, a silly, slight but extremely charming bit of romantic fluff. It's not a masterpiece, but I got what I came for - 100 minutes of fluffy, silly entertainment and Ms. Adams at her charming best.

Giselle (Amy Adams) is a beautiful inhabitant of the mythic fairy kingdom of Andalasia, which stands in for every Disney land of magic, cheerily talking and singing animals, beautiful protagonists, ugly bad guys, and true-love at first sight. She is engaged to be married to the handsome Prince Edward (James Marsden), but Edward's evil stepmother (Susan Sarandon) has other plans, banishing Giselle to a "place with no happily ever after" - New York City. Giselle is picked up by Robert (Patrick Dempsey), a down-on-his-luck lawyer and single dad reluctant to propose to his long-tiem girlfriend Nancy (Idina Menzel), and immediately begins spreading cheer, happiness and singing into his mundane life. Pursued by evil Queen and her duplicitous henchman Nathaniel (Timothy Spall), Giselle attempts to find her true love Edward - only to find herself falling for Robert and realizing the real-life meaning of love.

Enchanted is a sweet, charming fairy tale that achieves exactly what it sets out to do. As a spoof of Disney and the idea of fairy tales, it's not particularly novel - Shrek, Hoodwinked and numerous lesser films have beaten this concept into the ground in recent years - but it succeeds as a fairy tale in its own right. It's a much gentler deflating of the fairy tale than the abovementioned films, gently skewering fairy tale conventions while admitting that they have their place in the real world, after all. It's also extremely refreshing to see, however briefly, a return to Disney's lovely hand-drawn animation instead of the increasingly boring all-CGI, sub-Pixar efforts they've been making in the last few years. The songs, especially That's How You Know, are charming and well-used.

Amy Adams is beyond adorable in this film. She makes Giselle's ridiculous cheeriness and naivette thoroughly believable and charming, and does a nice job showing her evolution from literal cartoon to real human as the film progresses. The supporting cast provides some fun as well; Patrick Dempsey gives a good straight man performance as the incredulous Robert, Susan Sarandon has the evil bitch goddess thing down pat by now, and James Marsden and Timothy Spall provide excellent comic relief. Only Idina Menzel is curiously wasted as Robert's fiancee; how can you hire the star of Rent and Wicked for your film without giving her any songs?

Enchanted is by no means a masterpiece, but it's definitely lots of fun for what it is - a silly, happy and entertaining family film. And need I say any more about Amy Adams?

Rating: 7/10 - Recommended