Penelope

"Everybody's Penelope, and I'm stupid static cling!"

There are a dozen places where Penelope, a fairy-tale comedy five times sweeter and smarter than Enchanted, could have resorted to familiar tropes and surrendered to formula. It never does. This out-of-nowhere wonder, being dumped into theaters a year and a half after its premiere at the 2006 Toronto Film Festival (though, in fairness, only a few months after Atonement made co-star James McAvoy a bankable proposition), charms from the first frame to the last, and joins Charlie Bartlett on the list of early-2008 films that are both wholesome and intelligent.

The first scare came early on. I was thoroughly amused by the set-up: a witch snubbed by a family of snotty aristocrats curses them to have an offspring with a snout for a nose. That unfortunate child is Penelope Wilhern (Christina Ricci), whose sympathetic but clueless parents (Catherine O’Hara and Richard E. Grant) have kept her in virtual seclusion. The curse can only be broken if the family can get “one of their own” — another “blueblood,” presumably — to accept the poor girl the way she is. Desperate, Penelope’s parents have taken to “auditioning” possible suitors by simply putting them in a room with her. Invariably, they scream and run upon glimpsing her face, usually leaping through a window, at which point the Wilherns’ faithful butler chases them down and makes them sign gag orders.

So far so good. The film is somehow both wry and totally sincere about all of this — the montage of “bluebloods” shattering the Wilherns’ second-floor window strikes that difficult note of hilarity with a twinge of sadness. But I started to worry when an unscrupulous journalist with an axe to grind (Peter Dinklage) and a smarmy aristocrat with a reputation to protect (Simon Woods) recruited a down-on-his-luck blueblood named Max (McAvoy) to sneak into the Wilherns’ house under the guise of being a potential suitor in order to snap a picture of Penelope, for which he will of course be amply rewarded. I rolled my eyes — is this really where we’re heading with this? Obviously, Penelope will melt Max’s heart and the two will fall in love, but Max will neglect to tell her about his original purpose, leading inevitably to a teary climactic confrontation when Penelope discovers that he is a fraud — though of course he really isn’t.

No deal. Penelope abandons this trite trajectory at the first opportunity, instead going off in totally different direction. Max’s motivations turn out to be nothing like what they seem — a late-film revelation about him and what he has been doing is both surprising and sort of heartbreaking. Characters who seemed to be cartoonish villains turn out to be basically okay guys. And Penelope turns out to be less interested in finding a mate than in fleeing the nest and dealing with her snout in her own way.

The film is genuinely funny, ultimately becoming a media satire of sorts. Screenwriter Leslie Caveny, a television vet making her feature debut, has a way with humor that’s decidedly off-the-wall (watch for the priceless Halloween segment) without seeming to try too hard or strain for cult status. It’s sweet in a relaxed, unobnoxious way; the basically conventional be-yourself message is delivered gracefully and feels at home amidst the weirdness. Most importantly, it continues to surprise you. Had Penelope stuck to convention, it may not have spent 18 months on the shelf. But now that it’s finally landed in theaters, however briefly, it deserves your support.

-- Eugene Novikov

Released:	2008
Starring:	Peter Dinklage, Richard E. Grant, James McAvoy, Reese Witherspoon, Catherine O'Hara, Christina Ricci
Directed by:	Mark Palansky
Rated:	PG