Amy Adams excels as Disney heroine in the real world Giselle in Enchanted |
Director: Kevin Lima
Cast: Amy Adams (Giselle), Patrick Dempsey (Robert Philip),
James Marsden (Prince Edward), Susan Sarandon (Queen Narissa), Timothy Spall
(Nathaniel), Idina Menzel (Nancy Tremaine), Rachel Covey (Morgan Philip)

In the animated world of Andalasia, Giselle (Amy Adams) is
the classic Disney heroine – singing joyfully, talking with animals, all the
usual trappings. She falls (instantly, of course) in love with the dashing
Prince Edward (James Marsden), but Edward’s cruel step-mother Queen Narissa
(Susan Sarandon) is determined to thwart the match so she can retain the crown.
On Giselle’s wedding day, Narissa pushes her through a magic well to a place
where there are no happy endings: modern day New York. Stuck in the real world,
Giselle meets quietly disillusioned family lawyer Robert (Patrick Dempsey) and
his 6 year old daughter Morgan – can Giselle adjust to the modern world? Can
Edward save her? And will she want to go back?
The star turn is Amy Adams, and she is terrific. This is one
of those performances that looks easy, but is in fact extraordinarily
difficult. She simultaneously plays a fairytale character in the real world,
with a cartoon’s outlook and understanding, but also subtly deepens and enriches
this character with real world traits, developing and growing her personality
to become someone who feels “real”. She does this without jarring gear changes
or sudden swings – and holds both these characterisations together
simultaneously. So Giselle’s fundamental personality doesn’t change, while her
outlook and understanding changes dramatically. She’s endearing, a wonderful
light comedian, and her singing and dancing is terrific. It’s not too much of a
jump to say she basically is the movie.
And an enchanting movie it certainly is, one part
affectionate recreation of Disney, one part affectionate send-up. Relocating
the conventions and style of a Disney movie to the real world allows a lot of
fun, as Giselle musters the animals of New York to help her clean (pigeons,
rats and flies) or recruits the people of Central Park into an extended song
and dance routine while Robert looks on with bemused confusion. It helps that
the songs are so well written – Alan Menken and Stephen Schwartz’s tunes are
basically classic Disney tunes with a satirical bent, which means it’s
perfectly possible to enjoy both for what they are and for the dry commentary
they offer on Disney.
In fact that’s why the film works so well: it is so blinking
affectionate. There is no cruelty about it and none of the tedious “smarter
than thou” referencing of, say, Shrek.
Instead it teases Disney, while simultaneously understanding the vast majority
of us love these films: that if we
had the chance, as Nancy does, we might well jack in the real world for a fairytale.
We don’t want “gags for the grown-ups” or dumb film references: if a film concentrates
on making itself sincere and engaging, it will engage both adults and children
at the same time.
The film really successfully bowls along, full of
entertaining charms and gags. In fact the appeal of the fish-out-of-water
plotline with Giselle is so effective the sub-plot around the villainous Queen
Narissa actually becomes less interesting. While the presence of a villain of
this type is a pretty central part of the Disney structure, it never quite
comes together here – it feels like something inserted due to the rules of the
genre rather than an organic part of the story. Now it is essential there is
some peril to propel the story forward, but Narissa just isn’t quite interesting
enough (and the final battle with a CGI dragon, while a great recreation of
similar moments isn’t really gripping). Fundamentally the emotional and
dramatic culmination of the film is Giselle realising what she wants – and it’s
this compelling human story that powers the film.
But this is a niggle in a charming and very funny film. Amy
Adams is of course the star, but Patrick Dempsey very successfully adds warmth
to the “stick-in-the-mud” straight man who flourishes as the film progresses
(in a nice touch, he slowly takes on the very singing, dancing, cartooney
traits he finds so bemusing in Giselle). James Marsden has huge fun as the
gently egomaniacal Prince Edward, providing many of the film’s belly laughs
with his unreconstructed fairy-tale hero view of the world.
Enchanted works so
well because it’s both a subtle commentary on Disney fairytale films and also a
marvellous fairytale itself. With a terrific performance from Amy Adams (how
did she not get an Oscar nomination for this?) and some cracking songs, the film
is wonderfully entertaining, making some gentle fun of its genre, while also
celebrating it. It only wants to entertain and enchant you – and it certainly
succeeds.
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