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Penelope 
Actors : Christina Ricci, James McAvoy, Catherine O'Hara, Reese Witherspoon, Peter Dinklage
Director : Mark Palansky
Studio : Summit Entertainment
by Summit Entertainment
Brand : Universal
Release Date : 2008-07-15
Publisher : Summit Entertainment
Availability : Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Number of Items : 1
EAN : 0025195037952
UPC : 025195037952
Avg. Customer Rating: (based on 52 reviews)
List Price : $25.99
Our Price : $17.29
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Product Description |
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Lonely heiress who has spent her life trying to break a strange family curse that left her with the nose of a pig. Penelope begins to learn that loving herself is more important than breaking the curse. Studio: Uni Dist Corp. (summit) Release Date: 07/15/2008 Starring: Christina Ricci Reese Witherspoon Run time: 89 minutes Rating: Pg |
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Americancivilwar.com |
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Taking cues from Beauty and the Beast and Cyrano de Bergerac, director Mark Palanksy debuts with a slight, if fanciful confection. Produced by Reese Witherspoon and written by Leslie Caveny, Penelope begins with the phrase, "Once upon a time...," making it clear the proceedings owe more to fantasy than reality. Due to a family curse, Ricci's sweet-natured heiress sports a pig snout instead of a normal nose. Since surgery isn't an option--it would sever her carotid artery--her parents (Christopher Guest favorite Catherine O'Hara and an underused Richard E. Grant) hide her from the world for 25 years. Penelope can only break the spell through "one who will love her faithfully," but none of the local bluebloods will have her. One fateful day, while her face is hidden, she meets musician-turned-gambler Max (Atonement's James McAvoy in a winning performance). Sparks fly, until she finds he's only cozying up to her on orders from tabloid reporter Lemon (The Station Agent's Peter Dinklage), so Penelope runs away from home. The city she enters looks much like modern-day London--Amélie's Michel Amathieu served as cinematographer--except most everyone speaks with an American accent (then again, the film is a fable). The aspiring horticulturist befriends spunky courier Annie (Witherspoon) and reconnects with Max, who harbors secrets of his own. Once people become accustomed to her unconventional looks, Penelope's future starts to brighten. Like Enchanted, Palanksy's first feature gives the romantic comedy a refreshing--and empowering--fairytale twist. --Kathleen C. Fennessy |
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New-age fairy-tale |
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This is a very good flick, I recommend any and everyone to see it. Christina Ricci is spectacular and James McAvoy is...well, James McAvoy hasn't starred in a single movie I haven't liked. Even Reese Witherspoon's short little stint is delightful! |
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GREAT FILM, BUT LACKLUSTER DVD TAKES IT DOWN A NOTCH! |
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I'm a sucker for a good fairy tale and 'Penelope' is one of the best I've seen in years. Ricci is perfect in the title role and although she has a pig's nose, strangely she remains attractive in this quirky love story! What I loved about this film was the more you get to know her character, the more her bizarre disfigurement just didn't matter. There's a great message here about acceptance and how self esteem can alter the way people perceive you, but unfortunately the DVD is a bit of a bummer. There aren't many extras and there are scenes cut and shortened from the film at least how it was viewed over seas. I didn't see this film in theaters, so I'm not quite sure what exactly has been changes. It would have been nice to offer a 2 disc edition with both versions of the film and more extra material. |
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Christina Ricci Is hot. |
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Simple fact Even with the pig nose I still thought she was hott. She could have a curly tail and shed still be hot. I hope she reads this and laughs so hard she oinks.... I mean snorts ohh and the movie was pretty funny too |
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Impossible to 'uglify' Christina |
Penelope definitely seemed like my kind of movie. It has Christina Ricci in it, and it's going along the lines of an ugly-duckling-turning-into-a-swan story, which yes, has been done a million times.
It's probably my latter comment which should have made me stay away from it. (Also the fact it has James McAvoy in it - what is the appeal about him? I don't get it.) There's just something magical missing from Penelope, which should have made it stand out from all the other movies out there. For starters, it's impossible to uglify Christina, just by putting a false nose on her. It just didn't work. She still looked as gorgeous as ever.
The plot was pretty simplistic, so simplistic that even I found nothing I didn't understand about it. There's a lot of familiar British faces in it, so look out for them. Burn Gorman was my main one - for Torchwood fans - but there's a few other familiar faces there.
There's not much else to say about Penelope. It just didn't work for me and was very disappointing. |
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Perfect Penelope |
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Normally, when a movie is touted as being "family-friendly" it's a codeword for "incredibly boring." Penelope, conversely, is both family-friendly and entertaining. It's even extremely charming to boot. Normally, a movie feels strained or too simple when it strives to be viewable by everyone -- trying to please too many people results in pleasing no one -- but this story is complete and perfect. |
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