Not even fairy godmother could save this high school pumpkin
PAUL DORO
Not even fairy godmother could save this high school pumpkin
By PAUL DORO Special to the Journal Sentinel
Friday, July 16, 2004
In “A Cinderella Story,” a completely unnecessary modern retelling of “Cinderella,” not a single person looks, acts or speaks like an actual person of high school age.
If only that were the movie’s sole problem.
After Sam’s (Hilary Duff) father dies in a random earthquake, she is left with her wicked stepmother (Jennifer Coolidge) and evil stepsisters (Madeline Zima, Andrea Avery). When she isn’t busy maintaining her straight-A average in school, she is being put to work as a waitress by her stepmother, who is busy with her artificial tan and Botox injections.
Sam’s social life isn’t much better, but she is having an online relationship with a guy she met in a Princeton chat room. What she doesn’t know is that the guy is Austin (Chad Michael Murray), the quarterback of her high school’s football team and the school’s student body president. Austin’s friends and girlfriend torment Sam every chance they get, with “diner girl” their insult of choice.
Will Sam and Austin meet at the Halloween dance? Will they feel the same when their true identities are revealed? Will Austin’s dad force him to attend the University of Southern California and forbid him to go to Princeton, his dream school?
“Cinderella Story” makes it kind of hard to care.
Duff, the “Lizzie McGuire” star turned pop singer, and Murray give bland performances and have as little chemistry together as they do acting talent individually.
Austin is supposed to be smart, but he still can’t figure out who she is — even though he sees her at school every day, regularly sees her at the diner where she works and even goes through the school yearbook and sees her picture.
To make matters worse, Sam is just as shallow and callous as the people who mistreat her. When she suspects that her mystery man is a sci-fi geek who dresses up like Neo from “The Matrix” for the Halloween dance, she is repulsed.
The young girls who make up Duff’s fan base may not mind, but everyone else is going to check with the theater manager about a refund. The whole thing feels like detached adults’ cartoonish idea of what high school life is like.
A Cinderella Story * 1/2
Cast: Hilary Duff, Chad Michael Murray, Jennifer Coolidge, Regina King, Dan Byrd, Madeline Zima, Andrea Avery Behind the scenes: Produced by Ilyssa Goodman, Hunt Lowry, Dylan Sellers and Clifford Werber. Written by Leigh Dunlap. Directed by Mark Rosman. Rated: PG; mild language and innuendo Approximate running time: 95 minutes
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