Penelope (2006 Movie)

 I have to admit, I enjoyed this a LOT more than I thought I would.

Here’s the IMDB Page.  Does anyone actually use that site? Not being a filmhead, I don’t know what movie aficionados actually use. Is it a sellout site like Devilreads is for books? I don’t actually care, it’s just a question that sprang to mind when I was linking.

 

An old money family was cursed several generations ago that the first born daughter would have the ears and nose of a pig. So they had all boys for quite some time. Then along came Penelope, snout and all. Her mother faked her death and has had her hidden away for years. The curse can only be broken when someone like her (ie, a rich blueblood) accepts her for who she is and marries her. Throughout the years Penelope’s mother has used a discreet matching service to try to find Penelope a husband. All to no avail. Then a journalist, who saw Penelope as a baby and was laughed out of a job, finds a down and out Blueblood who he pays to spy.  Max, the blueblood ends up really liking Penelope but when she reveals herself declines her request for marriage. Penelope runs away into the big bad world, meets Reese Witherspoon on a vespa, has a boat load of adventures and then finds out that Max was actually a janitor and not a blueblood at all. She accepts herself and turns into Christina Ricci and she and Max get together happily ever after.

Mrs B went through about 10 movies that the local library had that she was interested in. This was the only one I was willing to watch. Thankfully, we both enjoyed it. I was expecting a lot more YA drama angst but instead it took the Fairytale route, which while having some of the same things, is completely different in tone. The only whiner was a rich brat who hates Penelope but is trying to marry her for her money.  Thankfully she leaves him at the altar! (bravo!!!)

This was light and fun and cute. I actually ended up watching it twice. Once on my own and then again with Mrs B. She tends to be a talker during movies so I have learned to watch things on my own if I want to get all the little details. The whole thing with Max being a fake the whole time was great and the producer did a great job of deliberately misrepresenting things. In some ways it reminded me of “A Beautiful Mind”, that kind of directorial misdirection.  I couldn’t handle a steady diet of movies like this, but it is really nice to get a bit of a change up.

Now comes the tough part. What do I watch next? I just looked through my collection and have picked out three.These are of the “So bad they are just Bad” variety.  Comic book movies before the MCU really got rolling and kicked the quality up a notch. Let me know what you want, if any. No matter which, it isn’t going to be pretty…