Enchanted stars Amy Adams, Patrick Dempsey and Susan Sarandon in a fairly unusual take on fairy tales. While probably not worth multiple viewings, it is more than enjoyable enough to watch at least once for Disney poking fun at itself. Most noteworthy of all is Amy Adams, who plays Giselle, the princess who gets knocked out of the fairy tale world and into real-life New York City by her evil mother-in-law to-be, Queen Narissa (Sarandon). Adams plays Giselle's naive innocence with such solidness and charm it is unmistakably what carries the movie so successfully.
Setting Up the Story
After finding herself no longer animated and in present-day New York City, the gags abound, though most are cute enough not to seem already tired. Giselle isn't wandering long before a lawyer and his daughter (Patrick Dempsey, Rachel Covey) find her atop a billboard trying to gain entrance to a three-dimensional castle advert. Before long, Giselle is staying at Robert and Morgan's apartment and cutting up his drapery to make her dresses for each new day. She even brought her songs and animal-friend-making charms, cleaning the apartment in one of the film's better moments, the surreal "Happy Working Song." Naturally, things get awkward between Robert and his girlfriend Nancy, and things almost get unpleasant for Robert at his job when Giselle upsets his clients (who are getting a divorce), when they assume her pleas for them to stay together are a cheap ploy.
Charm Goes a Long Way
The film itself still goes through the motions you expect it to: Robert is both irritated and charmed by Giselle, and the charm wins over easily and before too long. His longterm girlfriend Nancy is leery of the situation (and rightly so) but the movie doesn't try to pretend it won't have someone in store for her, too. Giselle's original prince (James Marsden, in a performance nearly as inspired as Adams') breaks onto the scene with a vaguely irritating chipmunk friend (with completely unnecessary scar humor at one point) in search of the princess who was taken from him.
Sugary Formula
On one hand, it's hard to tell if the movie is being lazy or merely embracing the color-by-numbers plot--it could safely be the latter, considering the tongue-in-cheek self-deprecating approach Enchanted takes towards the whole fairly tale genre. The evil Queen shows up before long, just as the lovers are realizing their feelings for one another. Unfortunately, the film runs a little long at this point, the evil Queen Narissa captures Robert--in a brief, nearly refreshing moment of role reversal until the movie feels the need to address this itself--but Giselle ends up trying to rescue him. Naturally, the film has a very tidy and sugary wrap-up.
A Fun Watch
As far as family films go, this is an easily watchable one. It doesn't have an abundance of adult humor, but adults will certainly find humor with the way Enchanted pokes fun at the Disney formula. And however tired the audience may find this type of film, or however cynical some audiences may be, it's nearly impossible not to be utterly charmed by Amy Adams' sweet and pitch-perfect, believable performance. Patrick Dempsey does well in support, but he seems well aware of his role as eye-candy and straight man to the naive Giselle. The film is an easy watch, it's just not necessarily one to own or to survive repeat viewings.
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