A Cinderella Story

Review by Clint Morris

As a reviewer, you can't simply turn your nose at movies just because they're not something you yourself would normally go for.

For instance, A Cinderella Story has nothing to offer a 29 year-old male. Nothing.

A 15 year-old schoolgirl on the other hand, well they'll be in heaven: not only does it have incessantly-popular Hilary Duff front-row-centre, but it has cute boys, oodles of pop music, hordes of "aww, gee that's sweet" moments and a rousing finale that'll make any bubblegum-chewing outsider inclined to go back to class and tell the bitchy girl at the back where to shove her head.

Regardless of age, there's one thing there that's clear-cut: Hilary Duff is appealing. She does have 'something'.

In A Cinderella Story, it seems to be that she's paying the 'normal gal' - albeit, a very 'pretty' normal girl. And she's good at it too. Walking the line between discomfited teen-in-love and underprivileged orphan girl, she seems to be able to actually act.

Hopefully, she'll be working with better scripts by the time she's at maternal age though. This one doesn't do a lot for her.

A Cinderella Story is essentially an updated take on the fairytale. Set in contemporary California, it tells the story of Sam, a young girl whose father dies in the earthquake and as a consequence is bought up by her evil stepmother (an aptly cast Jennifer Coolidge).

Like in the fairytale, she's forced to a life of being ordered about by her two ugly step sisters and playing slave. In this case, being forced to work endless hours at the family's diner.

The knight in shining armour is closet poet Austin (Chad Michael Murray). He's a promising footballer whose father is insisting he play ball and work in the family business, rather than do what he actually enjoys: write. Austin and Sam come together through SMS messages and email: she knows who he is; he doesn't know who she is. When they do meet, she's wearing a mask (as if he couldn't tell!) so he's still got no idea.

Instead of a glass slipper, she leaves behind her mobile phone at the dance, and it's up to him to find out who it belongs to.

As aforementioned, if you're a newly crowned teenage girl, you'll enjoy the heck out of this. Granted, probably not as much as the original Disney classic or even the Drew Barrymore Ever After take - but it'll still tickle your fancy.

Anyone else, alas, will probably be able to see it for the ho-hum teenage comedy it is: its script is as thin as an ice-cream wafer, it's plot holes are as big as craters, and some of the characters are about as pragmatic as the plot of a Pauly Shore movie.

Still, there's an audience for it, and let's try and remember that…

2.5 out of 5

A Cinderella Story
Australian release: Thursday September 23rd
Cast: Hilary Duff, Jennifer Coolidge, Chad Michael Murray, Dan Byrd, Lin Shaye.
Director: Mark Rosman, Susan Duff.
Website: Click here.

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