Enchanted

[Okri]

much like no one is upset Jamie Lee Curtis has no Oscar nomination

I'm not really upset by it--it's just the Oscars, after all--but I think that Jamie Lee Curtis absolutely deserved a nomination that year over the entire lineup that the Academy selected.

Ditto. What a dismal line-up that was.

[dws1982]

much like no one is upset Jamie Lee Curtis has no Oscar nomination

I'm not really upset by it--it's just the Oscars, after all--but I think that Jamie Lee Curtis absolutely deserved a nomination that year over the entire lineup that the Academy selected.



Edited By dws1982 on 1195961882

[Penelope]

no one is upset Jamie Lee Curtis has no Oscar nomination (except maybe herself, Christopher Guest, Janet Leigh and Tony Curtis).

I'm upset, considering Curtis' performance in Freaky Friday is a million times better than the performance that actually won that year.

I thoroughly enjoyed Enchanted up until the last 20 minutes, when it became routine and predictable. Adams--who, you'll recall, I couldn't stand in Junebug--makes so much of it work, though I could easily see the Academy overlooking it due to its light, fluffy nature (not realizing, of course, how fine a balance she plays it); and Marsden is absolutely hilarious--I would SOOOO love to see him get a Supporting Actor nomination.

[FilmFan720]

BJ, I like your comparison to Jamie Lee Curtis, here. I think that had anyone else played Jack Sparrow, there would not have been a nomination. Johnny Depp was one of those actors who it was odd had never had an Oscar nomination (although I remember an article about a year before the film that pointed out that for a big movie star, Depp had never had an all-out hit movie). It was that big role that finally netted him a nomination. I don't think there is anyone out there offended Amy Adams is a one-time nominee, much like no one is upset Jamie Lee Curtis has no Oscar nomination (except maybe herself, Christopher Guest, Janet Leigh and Tony Curtis).

[The Original BJ]

Well, I hate to be such a grouch toward a movie so many will find so pleasant, but I found Enchanted to be no different than your average live-action family film. (Note to Damien: DO NOT see this movie. It is a goddamn cartoon through and through. I can give you a list of twenty-five goddamn cartoons off the top of my head you should see before submit yourself to this. Seriously.)

I had doubts about the film from the trailer -- it looked to me like I had seen this one-joke film plenty of times before (recently in Kate & Leopold) and Enchanted definitely has its share of not-so-original moments with storybook characters marvelling at cars/remote controls/cell phones/etc.

But I had a bigger problem as well: I didn't think the story fractured the fairy tale as much as it clearly thought it did. Shrek may be loathed around here, but I thought the first film was at least enjoyable for the way it cleverly mocked fairy tale conventions. Obviously I didn't expect Enchanted to be as mean-spirited as Shrek (and in some respects, that's a good thing), but for me the film seemed less homage to Disney animation and more rehash of Disney animation. "Happy Working Song" is a less a riff on "Whistle While You Work" than it is a sheer rip-off. Here the evil witch turns into not only an old hag (hi, Snow White!) but ALSO a dragon (hello, Sleeping Beauty!), yet the combination doesn't make these devices any more original. And of course I've never seen a comic animal sidekick before! Ultimately, the filmmakers seem to have designed this film as a throwback...but I'm not sure what they think they're throwing back to. These types of films are still made in regularity (certainly on the direct-to-DVD circuit, as recently as a decade ago in the theatrical realm), so acting like it's something clever and new when it's really just more of the same is odd.

Also, the film doesn't play by its own rules, as the storybook characters become awfully knowledgable about their NY surroundings far too quickly. Giselle isn't even in town a day and she's already singing about detergent and washing machines...things I don't think they have in Andalasia.

The most interesting aspect of the narrative occurs in the second half, as our princess must come to terms with the fact that the man she always assumed would be her true love might not be (and Amy Adams essays her character's issues with surprising depth and intelligence). But then it pretty much goes to pot in a finale in which we're one step ahead of the characters at every beat. I'm not even sure what happens in the climactic moment, things are edited so clumsily.

Amy Adams is indeed very winning, but I can't say she struck me as the revelation she did for some critics. I honestly wondered if everyone had just forgotten Junebug -- THAT performance was a true, out-of-the-blue knockout. Here she's lovable and charming, and a natural musical talent...so good for her that she'll have a big box-office success. And good for Junebug -- maybe more people will seek out that gem. But I still think she faces an uphill battle with Oscar. I think the best comparison is not Johnny Depp '03 but Jamie Lee Curtis '03: a family film performance everyone agreed was terrific, but in a film Oscar wouldn't take seriously enough. I bet Enchanted faces the same fate, as this is definitely kids' stuff.

Oh, and James Marsden is also lovably daffy. So good for him for having another musical hit this year.

I agree with OscarGuy's take on the score: after the first three numbers, the film sort of forgets that it's a musical, and the last two original songs are bland pop underscore. "How Does She Know" is the big dance showcase (and some of y'all who've actually seen a musical or two are going to cringe at how incompetently this one's directed), but I think the best song is "True Love's Kiss," the main theme which weaves throughout the film. And who wouldn't love to see Amy Adams and James Marsden perform that love duet on the Oscar telecast?

[FilmFan720]

I'm also incredibly disappointed that they would include Idina Menzel and NOT let her sing.

Funny, I would argue that is perhaps the smartest move they could have made. They saved millions of ear drums from exploding.

[OscarGuy]

My personal opinion aside, the rapturous opinion of her could push her forward, though I will never agree with them.

I've got 20 screeners awaiting my attention. No Country for Old Men is not among them, though I'm supposed to be receiving it as part of the Miramax package, but since I thought the trailer was horrid, I won't be putting it at the front of my viewing queue.

[Sonic Youth]

That scene in central park gave me hope the film was going to be a modern Mary Poppins. Then there wasn't another true musical number in the rest of the film. They seemed to forget half way through that they were intending to poke fun at/revel in the art form of animated movies/cross-animated/live-action movies. I liked the film to a point, but really can't differentiate it from any other fairy-tale film of the last decade, which is saying a lot since the greatest fairy tale was made 16 years ago.

I'm also incredibly disappointed that they would include Idina Menzel and NOT let her sing. That's the most ludicrous thing ever. Amy Adams was good, but certainly not Oscar calibre. I got very tired, very quickly of the hands dancing in front of her face. It may have been intentional for her to overdo it, but it really got tiring. It was good, but nothing revelatory (I leave that title to Marion Cotillard so far this year). I didn't see a star emerging. I saw a decent actress doing well with a thinly-developed character. She may have brought life to it, but when surrounded by the horrendously wooden Patrick Dempsey, Jessica Alba could have been good.

Marsden is the standout here. His comic timing dances circles around Adams'. It's he, not she, who makes the film work on a different level. I was more excited that he and Idina ended up together than Adams and Dempsey did.

I thought Susan Sarandon was annoying as hell. Certainly campy, but not in a good way.

Yes, Oscar Guy, but what about her Oscar chances now?

Am eagerly awaiting your disappointing appraisal of No Country for Old Men. See you next month!

[anonymous1980]

That scene where she is simultaneously angry but also shocked/amused by the fact that she is just screams Oscar clip. Amy Adams totally nailed it. Count me as one of those who would be delighted see her name in the nomination list.



Edited By anonymous on 1195909090

[OscarGuy]

That scene in central park gave me hope the film was going to be a modern Mary Poppins. Then there wasn't another true musical number in the rest of the film. They seemed to forget half way through that they were intending to poke fun at/revel in the art form of animated movies/cross-animated/live-action movies. I liked the film to a point, but really can't differentiate it from any other fairy-tale film of the last decade, which is saying a lot since the greatest fairy tale was made 16 years ago.

I'm also incredibly disappointed that they would include Idina Menzel and NOT let her sing. That's the most ludicrous thing ever. Amy Adams was good, but certainly not Oscar calibre. I got very tired, very quickly of the hands dancing in front of her face. It may have been intentional for her to overdo it, but it really got tiring. It was good, but nothing revelatory (I leave that title to Marion Cotillard so far this year). I didn't see a star emerging. I saw a decent actress doing well with a thinly-developed character. She may have brought life to it, but when surrounded by the horrendously wooden Patrick Dempsey, Jessica Alba could have been good.

Marsden is the standout here. His comic timing dances circles around Adams'. It's he, not she, who makes the film work on a different level. I was more excited that he and Idina ended up together than Adams and Dempsey did.

I thought Susan Sarandon was annoying as hell. Certainly campy, but not in a good way.

[flipp525]

Enchanted is a delightful little genre-bending film featuring a luminous star-making performance by Amy Adams. Her transformation is seamless and real and the actress gives it a gravitas that elevates the entire film from what could've been treacly, inconsequential tripe. The moment where Giselle realizes that she's capable of anger, then is left alone to quiver in the realization after her new "Prince Charming" has shuffled off to bed is definitely her money shot. An Oscar nomination is certainly not out of the question.

James Marsden is scrumptiously fuckable as always (sorry, you knew I'd go there). And his performance is a treat as well. Susan Sarandon provides the requisite camp. The Central Park musical number that Giselle starts with the Rasta men is a classic moment.



Edited By flipp525 on 1195916515

[cam]

A sweet( some might say saccharine) film that had some very funny twists. James Marsden was hilarious. Maybe an Original Screenplay nom, and a couple of songs.

[Eric]

I'm as blindsided by this Oscar buzz development (such that I am capable of being) as I am by the fact that I'm actually excited to see the new King-Darabont collaboration.

[Damien]

The Boston Globe:

Enchanted: A movie princess is born
By Wesley Morris
11/21/2007

In "Enchanted," Amy Adams smiles like the sort of maiden you'd find on a butter wrapper or some fancy heavy cream. She's sweet and charmingly seductive. You may not need any cream, but the woman's so pretty you'd toss a container in your cart anyway. She also demonstrates a real performer's ingenuity for comic timing and physical eloquence (her big eyes pop, and she signals melodrama by swaying her arms like Lillian Gish). The sight of Adams gliding and beaming and chirping in this movie - a self-mocking cartoon that transforms into an inspired live-action musical farce - is just about the happiest time I've had watching an actor do anything all year.

That's partially because I was watching something I hadn't seen in a long, long time: an honest-to-goodness movie star brightening an actual movie. In this case, the occasion is extra-special since before "Enchanted" Adams was simply that nice Oscar nominee from "Junebug." Here she becomes a star before our eyes, and it's like witnessing an entire garden grow in under two hours.

Directed by Kevin Lima and written by Bill Kelly, the movie jabs at the virtuousness of the old Disney cartoons for laughs. It actually happens to be a Disney picture, but the company doesn't bite its own hand. It pats itself on the back for having a sense of humor about the ancient wholesome values of its animated legacy ("Sleeping Beauty," "The Little Mermaid," etc. come in for mild ribbing).

Adams plays Giselle, a fairy-tale heroine who, on her wedding day, is sent down a well and through some kind of wormhole into Disneyfied Times Square. The sender is an evil queen (Susan Sarandon under a lot of dark hair and makeup). Giselle is distraught and confused, galloping in a billowing white gown and pounds of red hair on the bustling Broadway sidewalks trying to figure out what's happened.

I knew the movie was in the right spirit when Giselle, in that immaculate dress, plops herself down on a dirty street at the feet of a bum. The movie maintains a great tension between the sanitation of her cartoon world and the dirtiness of New York. Before Robert, a divorce attorney played by Patrick Dempsey, agrees to put Giselle up in the roomy Upper West Side apartment he shares with his daughter, Morgan (Rachel Covey), he asks her where she'll sleep. Giselle requests a hollow tree or a meadow. (You'll have to hear Adams say it.)

At one point Giselle opens a window to summon her cute woodland critters to help her clean Robert's pigsty apartment. She's expecting ladybirds and fawns. She gets assorted vermin. Without a second thought, she breaks into a blissful song (by Alan Menken and Stephen Schwartz) and tidies up with her unsavory but effective maintenance crew. That sequence and another even more impressive musical number in Central Park are marvels of assurance. The filmmakers trust us to find the irony funny without once asking Adams or any of the energetic extras to wink at us, the way a Mel Brooks version of the same material might. After she gleefully makes herself clothes out of Robert's curtains and rugs, the cutaway holes shaped like dresses get a big laugh.

"Enchanted" is still fun when it leaves Adams and goes to James Marsden, as Edward, the prince who jumps through the wormhole, along with his crooked helpmeet (Timothy Spall) and a chipmunk, to rescue Giselle. Marsden flings his hair enough for it to be considered a workout routine and wears a jacket with such balloon shoulders you half-expect Richard Branson to commandeer one of them. But with a job as tough as Adams's, he transcends his props, enthusiastically playing this dolt with panache and valiance. Edward doesn't know he's a joke.

Innocence may be the movie's gag, but "Enchanted" isn't a send-up of virtue. Giselle and Edward get mocked but the movie doesn't work if we don't believe that those two believe in stuff like "true love's kiss." News of divorce gives Giselle a conniption. But the movie actually starts to run out of gas toward the finale when it introduces Giselle to the concept of dating and has her embark on a "Pretty Woman" shopping spree (she was better in drapes) then straighten out her piles of hair.

Incidentally, "Pretty Woman" remains the standard by which star-making is measured. That's mostly because since 1990 stardom no longer has much real currency. It's cheap bordering on meaningless. Tabloids, the Internet, and reality television have taken the mystery of out being a star. And would-be movie stars, like Ben Affleck, Jennifer Lopez, and Angelina Jolie, never quite took the "movie" part seriously in the first place. The audience, in turn, has come to distrust it, too - we know far too much about these people to surrender fully to them.

So Amy Adams is breathtaking almost by default: Who is she again? Her mesmerizing lightness seems like a condition of this character and a personal matter of fact: She brings no baggage to the part. The rub, of course, is that while a lot of people walking into "Enchanted" won't know who Adams is, they'll leave clamoring to find out.


And the San Jose Mercury News:

*** 1/2
'Enchanted': Adams makes an enchanting princess
By Mary F. Pols

"Enchanted" is about a princess who gets unceremoniously shoved out of her animated world and into modern-day Manhattan. There are the usual fairy-tale trappings: a wicked witch, a couple of princes, poison apples and talkative woodland creatures.

But the only thing about the film of any lasting significance is Amy Adams, the bewitchingly good actress who plays the princess. This is one of those star-making turns on the level of Julia Roberts in "Pretty Woman" or, looking further back, Judy Holliday in "Born Yesterday."

At the beginning of the movie, Gisele is a classic animated figure, frolicking in her treehouse, singing inane songs and naively dreaming of kissing her Prince Charming ("Lips are the only things that touch," she informs her furry friends). The instant she meets Prince Edward (the very funny James Marsden), she becomes engaged, incurring the wrath of his stepmother (Susan Sarandon), who opens up a portal to New York and boots Gisele through it.

Gisele arrives in the real world wearing a wedding dress roughly the size of the Titanic and floats through Manhattan in a worried daze, brightening only when she sees a little person. "Grumpy?" she says, hopefully. She's as clueless as Daryl Hannah's suddenly land-bound mermaid in "Splash," but less capable and even more vulnerable. In these early scenes, everything Gisele says is so idiotic that I expected to be insane with irritation within 20 minutes.

Instead, I was marveling at the sheer conviction of Adams' performance and her ability to sell all aspects of it, from the comedy to - I can't believe I'm writing this - the pathos of a fairy princess discovering what the real world is like.

Our early doubts are mirrored on screen by Patrick Dempsey, who plays Robert, the cute divorce attorney who unwittingly becomes Gisele's protector (his little girl begs him to bring her home, as if the princess were a stray cat). She's got "nut job" written all over her, and Robert, sensibly, eyes her with suspicion. When he decides to let Gisele have their couch for the night, he takes his daughter into his own room, protectively.

Robert searches for a chink in Gisele's armor of innocence and loveliness, but he can't find it. And when it comes to Adams, neither can we. She plays Gisele straight, and with radiant sincerity. Even when she's in the midst of a dumb scene, when a winning smile or a coy glance - those trademarks of so many stars - would be an easy way to keep the audience with her, Adams never cheats. This is a thoroughly constructed piece of acting, but remarkably, there's nothing about it that seems manufactured.

Adams is not some unknown ingénue fresh from the farm (although with her fair skin, pert nose and wide eyes, she certainly looks like one). Her supporting work in 2002's "Catch Me If You Can," as Leonardo DiCaprio's goofy bride, got her noticed. Then, in 2006, she was an Oscar nominee for a supporting role in the independent film "Junebug," in which she was so captivating that everything else about the smart little movie seemed to fade away around her.

In truth, there are things about "Enchanted" that don't work: a cleaning crew of vermin and cockroaches is just real enough to be crass rather than funny; the evil Stepmother's methods and means of doing magic would not stand up to a logician's examination; and a rooftop climax was something of a bore, even with a dragon in attendance. But it doesn't matter because, once again, the movie fades away around the actress, leaving the mind filled with her luminosity.



Edited By Damien on 1195667004

[Penelope]

Mahnola Dargis in the NYTimes is generally positive about the film itself, but pretty near rapturous about Adams:

It’s a gently heretical redo, characterized by a script that falters only in the clinch, some agile if overly timid direction and a strong cast led by a superb Amy Adams. As Giselle, an otherworldly princess who falls to Earth (worse yet, Times Square), Ms. Adams proves to be an irresistibly watchable screen presence and a felicitous physical comedian, with a gestural performance and an emotional register that alternately bring to mind the madcap genius of Carole Lombard and Lucille Ball. Ms. Adams doesn’t just bring her cartoonish character to life: she fills Giselle’s pale cheeks with blood and feeling, turning a hazardously cute gimmick into a recognizable, very appealing human confusion of emotion and crinoline.