Enchanted

Disney girl power! Finally watched Enchanted recently to see what all the hoopla was about, and paid the usual price for high expectations. The movie did leave a pleasant, sunny kind of feeling behind, but I admit to being a little irritated while I was watching the first half or so. It's about an animated heroine who falls into NYC just as she's about to marry her prince, and finds her puffy dress, singing, and ideals of true love quite out of place -- not to mention that she has no cash and no idea where she is! A lawyer (Patrick Dempsey) and his young daughter find and befriend her. I can't believe that I was irritated at a lack of plausibility at this point in the film, but I kept thinking, "Man, just call the cops and tell them a crazy lady is wandering around..." Then again, it's NYC. A call like that would probably just get you a laugh.

Amy Adams and Dempsey are very charming, and a special shout-out to James Marsden, who has now lost the girl in a seemingly infinite quantity of movies (he plays the prince). Adams does have quite a nice singing voice, as she also proved at the Oscars, though I'm not wild about the songs. The movie itself seemed quite squarely aimed at a tweeny audience at moments. Too many montages. The big musical number in Central Park had so many cuts from one clever little scene to another that I never had time to appreciate any choreography, and then there was the obligatory chick-flick shopping montage à la Pretty Woman. But a good happy ending and, as I said, a reasonable amount of girl power.