Ever After

Released 1998
Stars Drew Barrymore, Dougray Scott, Anjelica Huston, Megan Dodds, Melanie Lynskey, Patrick Godfrey, Jeroen Krabbé, Jeanne Moreau, Judy Parfitt, Timothy West
Directed by Andy Tennant

Every once in a while, a movie surprises me. Such is the case with Andy Tennant's Ever After. Based on the lackluster previews, I was prepared for the worst, but, instead of getting a juvenile, pointless re-telling of the classic "Cinderella" fairy tale, I was confronted with a delightful re-interpretation. While I won't claim that Ever After is the best cinematic version of the fable, this is deft storytelling, and sure to be a hit with almost everyone who sees it.

Ever After's twist is that it's telling the "real" Cinderella story from which the Brothers Grimm fable was derived. Consequently, there are no pumpkins, mice, magic spells, or fairy godmothers. The love story between a peasant girl and a prince is still at the core, although, in this case, "Cinderella" (whose name is Danielle), has the kind of progressive attitude that would be more at home in the 1990s than in the 1500s.

Tennant has found the right tone for this effort. The love story is wrapped around interludes of comedy, adventure, and drama. It never seems to matter that we know the entire story from the beginning -- the characters, not the plot, capture our attention.

Summary by James Berardinelli