Imperfect Penelope impractically pigs out

By Elizabeth Adler
Collegian Editor
February 27, 2008

A fairy tale set in the real world. Wouldn’t work, right? Correct, but new film Penelope almost works. It is a story about a girl, Penelope (Christina Ricci), cursed with a pig’s nose, who desperately tries to reverse the curse, all while figuring out how to accept herself.

As the audience finds out, from the narration that is heavy in the beginning but thins out near the end, Penelope’s unbelievably rich family, (richer than the Hiltons!), has a curse set on them. The first daughter will have the face of a pig, which can only be reversed once one of her own accepts her. Penelope’s overbearing mother (Catherine O’Hara), the funniest character in the film, interprets this to mean that until Penelope marries someone from the same type of family—a blueblooded one—she will never become snout-free.

After testing shallow rich snob after shallow rich snob, the same conclusion is always reached: Upon seeing Penelope’s face, they all yelp high-pitched screams and run away, often using the window as an escape route. One of the eligible bachelors, however, escapes before he can sign the necessary paperwork to prevent him from squealing. When no one believes him, he joins forces with a reporter who has been after pictures of Penelope for 25 years. They then hire a down-and-out blueblood gambler, played by James McAvoy, to woo her and find a way to snap a few shots of the famous pig-faced girl.

From there the movie takes off and follows Penelope on her quest for acceptance and experience in the outside world. This world that she starts to explore is one that is almost familiar. It is a mix of New York City and London, with half of the characters speaking in British accents, and the other half with American ones. It is almost as if the production crew dumped back alleys and side streets of London in the middle of Manhattan. It doesn’t make any sense why they couldn’t have picked one setting and stuck with it.

That being said, some of the movie’s scenery was breathtaking. An actual tree was used to depict Penelope’s family tree. To illustrate the curse taking effect, the tree went up in flames. The vibrant images the tree provided throughout the movie were striking.

Unfortunately, these fantasy scenes are few and far between. Just like maintaining one setting and one set of accents, the fairy tale elements should be constant throughout the entire movie, not just splashed in here and there. It makes the tone of the movie uneven, and the audience forgets that there is magic involved. It is as if they wanted to make a Disney movie but have it not be a Disney movie. At least Disney movies are consistent and committed to making fairy tales.

Nonetheless, the film does provide a lot of comic relief, thanks to O’Hara, and Peter Dinklage and Simon Woods as the reporter/preppie tag team.

But it is McAvoy who really stands out and steals what little of the show there is to steal. McAvoy’s character is the only one with depth. He plays a struggling addict with ease. It almost seems as if the role is too easy for him to play.

As for Ricci, I can’t say that she does a bad job, but she doesn’t have much to work with. She doesn’t find a way to make her character really stand out, and she has a snout! Her emotional range never goes beyond middling. The supporting cast is great; it’s just too bad that they don’t have more to do.

As much as the movie is all over the place—over-the-top one moment and incredibly boring the next—the ending is noteworthy. A twist I didn’t see coming is nicely weaved into the plot and executed in a clever fashion. Only one thing is missing from the ending—complete closure. Other than that, the ending is surprisingly good, considering the rest of the movie. Not that the rest of the movie is that bad, it just is inconsistent and has lots of room for improvement.

adlere1@lasalle.edu