Movies You May Have Missed: Penelope

Posted by Marielle in Movies.

Now that the torrential downpour of summer blockbusters is mostly a memory, I’d like to rewind to last February. That’s when my favorite DVD buy of 2008 was released in theaters in both the US and the UK. I know you missed it because the film raked in less than $4 million on opening weekend.

Penelope has all the makings of an indie movie, not-so-tragically flawed with an all-star cast — Christina Ricci (Monster, Sleepy Hollow), James McAvoy (The Last King of Scotland), Reese Ritherspoon (Walk the Line, Sweet Home Alabama) and Catherine O’Hara (The Nightmare Before Christmas) work to tell a fairytale for a new generation of women.

The story revolves around a girl named Penelope (played by Ricci), the daughter of a blue-blooded family under a curse. Born with the face of a pig (but really just a cute snout reminiscent of, forgive me, a WASPy turned-up nose), Penelope is forced  to live a solitary life inside her family mansion until the day that “one of her own kind” will accept her. Upon her 18th birthday, her good-intentioned parents proceed to set her up with every aristocratic male in the land, which only results in a lot of broken windows — a direct result of the shallow suitors who defenestrate themselves in terror at the sight of her delicate porcine features.

It’s not until the shaggy, down-on-his-luck Max (McAvoy) gets involved that the process also breaks her heart. Fed up with confinement and thirsting to see the outside world, Penelope escapes. She hits a pub, makes friends and quickly becomes a beloved public figure, all the while sending her parents cryptic postcards à la Amelie.

The film keeps a magical fairytale vibe with absurd characters (an awesome one-eyed midget reporter bent, at least for a while, on revenge; a poker-playing grannie decked out in flapper garb) and a hybrid setting in a nameless, fictional city somewhere between the US and the UK. The characters are certifiable Ameribrits with a random selection of American, English and Irish accents scattered throughout. Cinematographically, the film is highly stylized with bright colors and off-kilter camera angles, and wafting over them is a fun, RomCom-gone-right soundtrack that completes the atmosphere.

But it’s not the magic that makes me recommend this flick to you gals and gents — it’s the message. In the end, what really wins me over (more than James McAvoy’s baby-blue eyes) is the emphasis on self-worth and doing what makes you happy, regardless of what the world says is best for you. That’s one lesson everyone could use some practice on.

Penelope, Released on DVD
July 15, $19.99.

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