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BY KIM MORGAN Ever After |
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The Cinderella story has always been popular. Since its supposed origin in the pre-modern Chinese culture that fetishized footbinding, there have been nearly 500 versions of the tale about the girl and the glass slipper. Though all end with the prince and princess living happily ever after, the accounts of the final, formidable blows to the stepfamily differ wildly from country to country. In Indonesia, Cinderella shoves one stepsister into a cauldron of boiling water, then has the body cut up, pickled and delivered to the girl's mother as salt meat. In the Philippines, wild horses tear the wicked sisters limb from limb. In Italy's Tuscany region, the sisters wear so much makeup to Cinderella's wedding that they become abhorrent freaks. And in Germany, the Brothers Grimm had stepsisters lopping off their toes in order to force their feet into the glass slipper, which was nothing compared with the ending--where birds peck out the sisters' eyes. A far tamer version came from France. The French Cinderella is so conciliatory to her stepsisters that she forgives the ugly minxes their cruelty and winds up allowing them to live with her in the castle. As bereft of thrilling violence as this ending may be, it's the one that stuck--thanks to Walt Disney and his animated classic, which provided what has become the mother of all Cinderella denouements. With Ever After, director Andy Tennant casts plucky Drew Barrymore as Cinderella and Anjelica Huston as the fearsome stepmother and attempts to rejuvenate the familiar story with a modern, politically correct twist: He doesn't want girls to grow up believing "you have to marry a rich guy with a big house in order to live happily ever after." Even when following such a moralistic bent, the director of the made-for-TV movie The Amy Fisher Story (which also starred Barrymore) would surely infuse Ever After with a little sex, violence and death, right? But the PG-13 rating attached to Ever After isn't warranted; this film's more suitable for children than Teletubbies is. Not that Tennant's Cinderella is all fluff, however. In the update, Cinderella is Danielle, who becomes a servant to her wicked stepmother and two unctuous stepsisters after the earth-shattering death of her father. She is smart, athletic, pretty and--despite her ritualized abuse--upbeat. She's not waiting for her prince to come, but she wouldn't mind a shot at a better life. Then, a prince does come, in the form of a rebellious chap who considers his princely station a burden. Prince Henry (Dougray Scott) meets Danielle after she hits him with an apple, and then falls in love with her when he sees her disguise herself and cunningly convince a jailer to free a servant (and old friend) from prison. In other words, Henry loves Danielle's mind, and she flat-out loves him. A perfect set-up. Except that Danielle's stepmother and sisters have designs on the prince and are betting on supermodel-like stepsister (and mega-bitch) Marguerite (Megan Dodds) to snatch the famed bachelor. Though Danielle's odds of winning seem slim, in this sensitized version they are not so impossible as to require magic. Thus, the new Cinderella has no midnight curfew, no carriage that turns into a pumpkin and no fairy godmother, although there's a substitute: The great Leonardo da Vinci (Patrick Godfrey) comes along to watch over Danielle. Now this may sound awful, and in many ways it is, but one element saves Ever After from all-out idiocy. Her name is Drew. A fatherless black sheep from a kind of royal family herself, Barrymore makes a brilliant Cinderella. Though her attempt at a British accent takes a little getting used to, she masterfully plays the diamond in the rough and is delightful at every turn. As befits the character, Barrymore looks common from some angles and ravishing from others. (She's absolutely gorgeous in a swimming-pool scene.) Barrymore shines as a dramatic actress as well. Her pleas for lenience to her stepfamily and her overall passion are heartfelt and natural. She's also a wonderful counterpoint to the bitter, stultified stepmother played by Huston, who acts like a drag queen impersonating Joan Crawford (another Cinderella story for sure). Emoting and fluttering about with a lot of "hmphs" and "huffs," Huston is less than stellar--and certainly not as convincingly bitchy as she was in Nicholas Roeg's The Witches. Ever After is a movie that little girls will gush over, men will put up with and young women will secretly adore. With clear intentions that this Cinderella would be neither a Brothers Grimmer nor a Disneyfication, Tennant sets out to show that Cinderella's magic comes from within and not from some fairy godmother. Not from some fairy godmother? Is he kidding? Tennant should have learned from The Amy Fisher Story (what if there were no Joey Buttafuoco?): You don't mess with the crucial details.
originally published August 5, 1998 |
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