Enchanted

Every now and then you just want to get out of the doom-and-gloom of “serious” movies and get back to some real fun. In 2007 there seemed few of those movies. Stardust was a fun one. I’m happy to say that I’ve discovered another feel-good movie: Enchanted.

Enchanted, however, is more than pixie dust and dragons. It’s also a finely written movie that pokes fun, almost wistfully, at those animated Disney classics like Snow White and Cinderella.

We open with an animated story about a fairytale princess, Giselle (Amy Adams), who is suddenly thrust into New York’s dirt and grime by the evil Queen (Susan Sarandon). While Prince Edward (James Marsden) jumps into the reality abyss to save her, Giselle meets a divorce lawyer (Patrick Dempsey), who offers her help.

This is billed as a romantic comedy, and romantic it is, fully. But it’s also high-achieving comedy, as I found myself giggling, laughing, guffawing all the way through it. A movie like this has probably been tried several times – I mean, it’s not a terribly new thought as Pygmalion screams to life – but it’s put together in a new way. And, with technological advancements, things can be done like never before, e.g., like sewing animated sequences into live action, seamlessly. It’s quite an achievement. I kept wondering, how did they do that? And then I’d go back to chuckling again at the silliness of it all.

The writing is stellar. Amy Adams had to play her naivete seriously so that we’d believe her, and she does a marvelous job. And it’s so much fun, especially when Susan Sarandon takes the reins.

Enchanted is built for kids but it’s appealing to adults because it does reach for a greater understanding of those concepts we as kids wondered about. Is there a happily ever after? Who is meant to be our soulmate, and why? In answering that last question, the truth of this movie may lie in the gentle fact that it just may be that person over there who sees the wonder of life so vividly.

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