Ever After: A Cinderella Story 

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Director: Andy Tennant
Cast: Drew Barrymore, Megan Dodds, Patrick Godfrey, Anjelica Huston, Richard O'Brien

Sure, I cringed during the previews like every other red-blooded American male, but after three minutes of this delicate beast, I was hooked. You all know the story: Drew Barrymore stars as Danielle, the Cinderella stepsister who loses her beloved father at eight and must endure the petty crap of her stepmom (Anjelica Huston) and her two stepsisters. After several interludes of mistaken identity with the young prince of France, she manages to get herself to the masquerade ball in time to stop his impending marriage with the princess of Spain. Or does she?

After the first act of this beautifully rendered fairy tale, you'll stop comparing it to the Disney version, and—dare I say it?—you'll start thinking Disney's "Cinderella" is an overrated, sexist piece of pap. Because "Ever After" is a revelation, and a bold one at that: Not only does the prince get to meet Cinderella several times before falling in love, but the aspects of physical beauty are NEVER raised, not even for an INSTANT. At no point does Danielle's beauty even play a tertiary role in the screenplay; the prince loves her because of her passion, she loves him because of his ability to see the endless worth in even his lowliest subjects.

Nice touches are all over this production: the evil stepmom, rendered with vaudevillian glee by Anjelica Huston, actually has a few dimensions of goodness to her, which makes her grubbing all the more tragic. And one of the stepsisters, played by "Heavenly Creatures" actress Melanie Lynskey, is actually a good egg herself, thus deftly avoiding the cliched pitfalls of having all three step-siblings natter themselves into a shrill frenzy. It's a screenplay with a rare mix of magic and intelligence.

Nowadays—at a time when 13-year-old girls begin to starve themselves for future prom dates, when self-esteem issues ravage young women who otherwise would move mountains, and when every icon, from Disney heroines to mainstream actresses, adheres to a nightmarishly destructive blueprint of physical beauty, "Ever After" is required viewing. Drew Barrymore spends most of the movie in an equine state of puffy bloatedness—and you still fall in love with her. Without makeup and without adornment, she is the Middle Ages' answer to a modern world that is hell for the "ugly." The only true happy ending in this world ever after is the one where one's beautiful convictions and gorgeous thought patterns determine who gets to wear the glass slippers. Here's to a great movie that will have the smart girls cheering in the aisles.

—Ian Williams

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