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In this update of the fairytale, Sam is an orphan forced to work in her stepmother’s diner day and night. At school she is a geek, shunned by the popular kids and at home she is bullied by her two stepsisters. Her only ray of hope is the text message relationship she shares with a secret admirer. When he insists on meeting her at the high school dance, Sam doesn’t know what to do. Will he fall for the real her or be repelled by her nerdy image?
This film may as well be called “How to Make a High School Movie by the Numbers”. It’s got all the ingredients; poor but smart girl falling for rich, popular high school hunk, bitchy cheerleaders (“Love her dress, hate her.”), bitchy cheerleader wannabes, the school goth, the nerdy best friend, the school dance, adults who just don’t understand and the inevitable happy ending. And of course the Hollywoodised version of poverty. Our heroine may live in an attic, but it’s a really cool looking attic with a high-spec computer and telephone. She may have to work all the hours under the sun, but she can afford to run a vintage Mustang
convertible and dinky mobile phone and has an obviously expensive haircut and dye job. And this Cinderella doesn’t shamble around in rags; no she has a wardrobe full of very new and cool clothes. If only poverty could be like this for everyone!
Director Mark Rosman and screenwriter Leigh Dunlap have taken a worn-out concept and added nothing to it. The whole kit and caboodle could have been brought up several notches by a clever and witty script, but we aren’t even afforded that respite. There are no pithy insights into high school life and no cliché is left untouched. Right down to the voice over epilogue and prologue that show nothing more than a lack of imagination. The measure of this film is expressed by Sam’s nerdy best mate at the end of the film, when he says “You’ve just got to love high school.” Well no, you don’t. Especially when you and your friends are routinely humiliated by the ruling clique and even when you make an inroad you are slapped down.
Hilary Duff is carving out quite a career as one of the leading teenage actresses of the moment. Which is fair enough; she can act. Unfortunately she can’t convince as a geeky high school student because she’s too poised and pretty – she doesn’t carry herself like someone who knows what it’s like to be unpopular and everything is a bit too studied to be realistic. And when she cries, her mascara doesn’t run.
Michael Chad Murray is straight off the conveyor belt of the non-threatening boys’ factory. He was the object of Lindsay Lohan/Jamie Curtis’ affection in “Freaky Friday”. The haircut has changed, but nothing else has. There is nothing about him that screams star quality – he seems to think that squinting into the middle distance is acting. Whether he’s meant to be brooding, happy, pensive, confused, ambivalent or deeply in love, it’s the same squint, sometimes accompanied by a smile or a slight downturn of the lips. But I suppose if it gets him jobs, it’s fair enough. Maybe he should go to an optician’s though.
The only bright spots in an otherwise dull film are Jennifer Coolidge, who plays Sam’s stepmother and Daniel Byrd, who plays her best friend Carter. Coolidge is always watchable in her trout-pouted OTT performances. She has excellent timing and has made a signature role of the bubble-headed blondes she normally plays. Here it’s a case of same role, different film, but it works. Byrd is also blessed with good comic timing, which makes a character of his otherwise two-dimensional wannabe actor stereotype. I would have liked to have seen more of him, but the rigid plotting doesn’t allow for any flexibility. Regina King pops up as waitress Rhonda, one of the very few black characters in the film. She is little more than a plot device and a reminder that in most American teen films, black people are subservient.
The soundtrack is an uninspired mix of here today gone tomorrow acts plodding through forgettable tracks.
All in all this is an eminently forgettable piece of fluff that will only appeal to those who’ve never seen a John Hughes film, or any high school movie, come to that. Don’t bother wasting your money on it at the cinema, it will be on endless rotation on TV soon enough. Save an hour and a half of your life and go and watch paint dry instead.
How helpful would this review be to a person making a buying decision? Rating guidelines
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Comedy - Original Language: English - Classification: Parental Guidance - Starring: Christopher Ettridge, Victor McGuire, Emma Amos, Nicholas Lyndhurst, Elizabeth Carling
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I've seen that one and I really like it I think I had a nice relaxing time while my boyfriend was watching the Saturday football. =) Kris
Zoe 05.09.2004 15:44
I'm confident this has everything anybody coud possiby need to know about this film included. A concise and professional review - but how did you manage to write even this much? Zx
AimeeLouise18 05.09.2004 00:31
I quite fancy this film.It seems easy to watch and something that doesn't take a lot of brainpower :) Although it reall is predictable and there are a lot of them about I have to admit I sometimes like nothing more than to watch a predictable,soppy teen love story lol (sad I know lol)
Aimee xxx
Cinderella never had it this bad. A twisted and hilarious update of the classic fairy tale ... more
- high school senior Sam (Hilary Duff) lives at the beck and call of her self-obsessed step-mother Fiona (Jennifer Coolidge) and her sinfully wicked step-sisters...
Advantages: Chad Michael Murray's looks Disadvantages: Predictable, boring, Hilary Duff acting like herself yet again, poor comedy, really unoriginal, idea just wasn’t executed well, lacklustre script, bad direction, terrible soundtrack mainly because Duff sings the majority of the songs.
BabyGirl 17.11.2004 (17.11.2004)
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful
Review of A Cinderella Story (DVD)
Advantages: It'll cheer you up! Disadvantages: No chemistry between the two leads.
damncoldnightdotnet 06.05.2005 (06.05.2005)
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful
Review of A Cinderella Story (DVD)
Advantages: Chad Michael Murray's looks Disadvantages: Predictable, boring, Hilary Duff acting like herself yet again, poor comedy, really unoriginal, idea just wasn’t executed well, lacklustre script, bad direction, terrible soundtrack mainly because Duff sings the majority of the songs.
BabyGirl 17.11.2004 (17.11.2004)
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful
Review of A Cinderella Story (DVD)
![A Cinderella Story [DVD] [2004]](http://picnica.ciao.com/uk/78512120.jpg "A Cinderella Story [DVD] [2004]")
Sep 4th, 2004
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