Starring: Christina Ricci, James McAvoy, Reese Witherspoon, Catherine O'Hara, Peter Dinklage Directed By: Mark Palansky Average Rating: Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1 Audience Rating: PG (Parental Guidance Suggested) Binding: DVD Format: AC-3, Color, Dolby, DVD-Video, Full Screen, NTSC, Subtitled, Widescreen Label: Summit Entertainment Number of Items: 1 Region Code: 1 Release Date: July 15, 2008 Running Time: 89 minutes Theatrical Release Date: February 29, 2008
Amazon.com: Taking cues from Beauty and the Beast and Cyrano de Bergerac, director Mark Palanksy debuts with a slight, if fanciful confection. Produced by Reese Witherspoon and written by Leslie Caveny, Penelope begins with the phrase, "Once upon a time...," making it clear the proceedings owe more to fantasy than reality. Due to a family curse, Ricci's sweet-natured heiress sports a pig snout instead of a normal nose. Since surgery isn't an option--it would sever her carotid artery--her parents (Christopher Guest favorite Catherine O'Hara and an underused Richard E. Grant) hide her from the world for 25 years. Penelope can only break the spell through "one who will love her faithfully," but none of the local bluebloods will have her. One fateful day, while her face is hidden, she meets musician-turned-gambler Max (Atonement's James McAvoy in a winning performance). Sparks fly, until she finds he's only cozying up to her on orders from tabloid reporter Lemon (The Station Agent's Peter Dinklage), so Penelope runs away from home. The city she enters looks much like modern-day London--Amélie's Michel Amathieu served as cinematographer--except most everyone speaks with an American accent (then again, the film is a fable). The aspiring horticulturist befriends spunky courier Annie (Witherspoon) and reconnects with Max, who harbors secrets of his own. Once people become accustomed to her unconventional looks, Penelope's future starts to brighten. Like Enchanted, Palanksy's first feature gives the romantic comedy a refreshing--and empowering--fairytale twist. --Kathleen C. Fennessy
Self-Esteem Lessons Inform a Modern-Day Fractured Fairy Tale with a Game Cast Considering she played a white-trash nymphomaniac chained to a radiator in the last film I saw with her, Black Snake Moan, I was actually relieved to see Christina Ricci play a sheltered girl of standing born with a pig's snout in this whimsical 2008 parable about self-acceptance. Directed by first-timer Mark Palansky and written by sitcom veteran Leslie Caveney (Everybody Loves Raymond), the film was shelved for over a year until it was released in February to mostly apathetic reviews. That's a shame since there is a certain charm generated by the fractured fairy tale being told. Palansky shows a surprisingly light touch for someone who has apprenticed under the aegis of Michael Bay on bombastic schlock like Pearl Harbor and Armageddon, but Caveney's screenplay frequently comes across as plodding and repetitive when the story should feel beguiling. Still, it somehow saves itself by the end thanks primarily to a game cast.
The plot follows the sad tale of Penelope Wilhern, an heiress subject to a multi-generational curse when her 19th-century ancestors refused to allow one of their own to marry a servant girl. As the first girl born in the family since that injustice, Penelope is burdened with a pig's snout and can return to normalcy when a fellow aristocrat vows to love her for life. Her obsessive, superficial mother Jessica hides Penelope away in the mansion, even faking her death when a tabloid photographer threatens to take a picture. As Penelope comes of age, Jessica uses a professional matchmaker to line up potential suitors, but they all jump out the window when they see Penelope's supposedly hideous face. One particular aristocrat goes public with what his sighting of Penelope, but of course, there is another candidate, a disheveled, gambling jazz pianist named Max, who does fall in love with her. I was wondering why producer Reese Witherspoon didn't cast herself in the title role given her box office clout, but Ricci is the more suitable choice with her otherworldly stares and naturally pouty manner.
The problem is that Ricci (beyond not being a proven bankable draw) looks like she has intentionally applied prosthetic makeup to herself. Rather than looking grotesque, she just looks cartoonishly cute. Witherspoon does cast herself but in a small role as Annie, a Vespa-riding messenger who is Gregory Peck to Ricci's Audrey Hepburn on Penelope's Roman Holiday-style adventure. Witherspoon hasn't been this relaxed and likable since she became a star. As Max, the omnipresent James McAvoy (who seems to be suffering from the same level of overexposure Jude Law did a few years back) is more in his element here than as the smitten, heroic soldier in Atonement. In what feels like a nod to her role as the panicked mother in Home Alone, the redoubtable Catherine O'Hara generates most of the laughs as Jessica, but her constant shrieking gets repetitive. Peter Dinklage has a few nicely sinister moments as the tabloid photographer. The eclectic soundtrack is highlighted by the Sigur Ros' Hoppípolla. The only significant extra on the 2008 DVD is a disposable six-minute making-of featurette.
Lovely from start to finish! I really, really enjoyed this movie. I don't buy movies often, but after I saw this movie in the theater I just knew I had to own it. Girls have so many toxic "role models" thrust upon them and sadly they end up hating and starving their bodies at very early ages. Penelope is a movie all about learning to love yourself just as you are, and girls definitely need more of those positive messages nowadays. From a technical aspect- the movie is visually stunning. All the colors pop and it really contributes to the fairy tale feeling of the film. This film has a little something for everyone in it.
A lot of promise, but the film "Penelope" never had the revelation that character Penelope did. While this movie had some great messages, they often got buried in a film that didn't quite know if it wanted ot be a fairy tale or a social commentary on self worth. The greatest fairy tales have the ability to mix a nice social commentary and "lesson" into it's whimsical world. At times, "Penelope" seemed schizophrenic rather than a cohesive story that could have been very charming.
I enjoyed it, but after it went off I found myself focusing more on what was wrong about it rather than what was right and that isn't typically how I process movies.
I cautiously recommend it.
A Surprise Fable to Discover PENELOPE may at first glance seem like one of the few summer releases on DVD to merit watching, but though the selections on the shelves are inexplicably thin, this little modern day fable is so well made that it deserves wide attention. Though the plot is rather thin and predictable, the choice cast and production values gives it a luster missing from most films of the 'romantic comedy' genre.
The story (written by Leslie Caveny) is narrated by Penelope (Christina Ricci) who takes us back to the days of a curse placed on the wealthy Wilhern family who refused to allow a son to marry the impregnated common girl he loves and opts instead for a fellow blueblood. The rejected girl leaps of a cliff and the girl's mother places a curse on the family: the firstborn child, if a daughter, born to the clan will have the face of a pig that can be changed only if she is able to find lasting love. Years of firstborn sons trace the curse to contemporary London where the Wilherns (Catherine O'Hara and Richard E. Grant) finally give birth to a firstborn daughter, a dear child who indeed has the nose of a pig. The parents convince a reporter Lemon (Peter Dinklage) that the child died and was cremated and raise Penelope hidden from the real world outside. Penelope loves life and fills her enclosed space with joy until she becomes of courting age: the parents then make every attempt to secretly introduce her to wealthy young boys, each of whom flees when they see the pig girl in person.
Lemon tracks the events, knowing that Penelope still lives, and convinces some cohorts (including Simon Woods as the wealthy but squeamish Edward) to attempt to get photographs of her. Finally a likely prospect appears in the person of Max (James McAvoy) who apparently has squandered a fortune on gambling and is in desperate need of money. Max begins a cautious but consistent courtship of Penelope and is even able to look at her without disgust, but when Penelope finds her possible beau is in the game for the money, Penelope flees the 'prison' mansion and goes into the world for the first time (her nose is kept covered with a scarf). She finds the strange world fascinating, makes friends with a barkeep and a wild living Annie (Reese Witherspoon), and gradually is able to remove her scarf cover only to find that people like her despite her odd appearance. The concept of self-acceptance is well delivered. The only problem with the story is the manner in which the fable 'sells out' in the all too gratuitous ending. But the message remains and the films glows with a magic in the way that fables should, much to the credit of sensitive director Mark Palansky and a very fine cast. Grady Harp, July 08
Priceless PENELOPE is born under a family curse cast by a wicked witch. She must suffer from a porcine proboscis until she is loved by one of her own. Christina Ricci contributes another great performance that began many years ago with Mermaids, took flight with The Addams Family - The Complete Series as Wednesday, and soared with Johnny Depp in Sleepy Hollow and The Man Who Cried. It was rumored that she considered quitting acting, but she continually portrays some of the most interesting roles in film.
PENELOPE works on many levels, not the least being that one must love oneself to be loved. Once she learns the lesson, the spell is broken and the witch, who may not have been truly wicked after all, takes leave. The great cast includes Catherine O'Hara, not unlike her Home Alone persona, Reese Witherspoon, who is absolutely stunning in a small, supportive role, and James McAvoy in an understated but solid performance.
I missed this film in its theatrical release, which is fine since it works so well on a smaller screen. Not everyone will get it, but it's an interesting film to watch. I hope Ricci keeps perfecting her craft because there are so few like her on the screen today.
I liked that that the DVD has both the widescreen and full screen versions. It's a convenient and thoughtful option.
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