Movie 123: Penelope

Five generations ago a rich family were cursed by a witch for being assholes. The next girl born would have a pig face. Luckily they had a long line of boys, until Penelope (Christina Ricci) comes along. The curse would only be broken when “one of her own kind loved her” so her mother trained her to be a perfect wife. Unfortunately every suitor legged it when they saw her face. A reporter (Peter Dinklage) who lost his eye trying to get a picture of her as a baby hatches a plan to find a down on his luck blue blood to get a picture of grown up Penelope, and hires Max (James McAvoy). But things don’t go to plan.

I’ll leave it there. This is a kind of heart warming, entertaining modern fairy tale with a Pushing Daisies vibe that kind of loses it in the last half hour or so. Its still good throughout but that last reel dibs somewhat.

One of the main issues the film has is that Penelope really isn’t that horrific. I still would. I do have a major Christina Ricci thing though which may have helped. Fact is, with Reese Witherspoon as a best friend at one point (minor spoiler, sorry) she’s the better looking of the pair. Less pointy anyway.

To be fair to Reese I didn’t hate her in this.

There’s quite a few plot holes and inconsistencies too. I can’t go in to one of them as it’s a major spoiler, but one issue is that this was filmed in the UK and has a lot of UK minor cast members, but its set in New York (I believe). This would be fine if everyone could do accents, but Owen out of Torchwood’s is APPAULING. There’s a few people, Lenny Henry for example, that don’t bother with an accent so they’re presence is a bit baffling. I think he was a cop, but if he’s a PI I’m sure it’s fine. The blue bloods all seem to have English accents too, and that’s also fine. But they should have been ore consistent through.

James McAvoy proves once again that he’s a fantastic actor. His accent is spot on, he doesn’t miss a beat and even I fell for him a bit. And the Dink is in another role where its not a plot point that he’s dwarf. I love that. The dude is a great actor, he gets cast in good roles, the end. Obviously it’s a bit more poignant casting here though with the theme of the movie.

And Nick Frost has a very small role with a pretty hilarious slightly comedic American accent. Just glad to see him in something. Its not a BAD accent, just comically broad.

The rest of the cast are fine, the film looks great and that slightly otherwordly weird vibe is kept throughout. It’s not as deeply stylised as Daisies, Lemony Snickett or a Burton movie but just touched enough to have a unique look.

If it wasn’t for that last chunk being a bit off I’d highly recommend this, but all I’m dropping is the highly. This is an entertaining film and you should know from what I’ve said if this is your bag or not. It was mine.

Next up: Once