Movie Review: Enchanted

Enchanted (2007) 

Directed by Kevin Lima 

Written by Bill Kelly 

Starring Amy Adams, Patrick Dempsey, James Marsden, Timothy Spall, Idina Menzel, Susan Sarandon

Release Date November 21st, 2007

Published November 21st, 2007 

Historically, Disney has not been comfortable having their history poked fun at. Indeed, there have been lawsuits and recriminations when anyone would dare to make light of Disney's fairy tales. Well that was the old Disney. The new Disney attitude arrives with the release of Enchanted a film that doesn't so much make fun of Disney's past but rather is playfully irreverent toward it; while also reinventing and reinvigorating the formulas.

Most importantly, Enchanted brings to a mass audience the charming young star Amy Adams who following this starring role should break out into major stardom.

The kingdom of Andalasia is a cartoon paradise where a beautiful young peasant sings a song with her animal friends and awaits the arrival of her prince and her happily ever after. The peasant girl is Giselle (Amy Adams) and her prince is Edward (James Marsden) a vainglorious but good natured blowhard. The two fall immediately in love and are to married moments after meeting.

The couple's marriage plans are derailed however when the prince's step mother Queen Narissa (Susan Sarandon) see's Giselle as a threat to her thrown. Taking on the classic look of crone, the Queen tricks Giselle into falling into a magical waterfall that transports her to an entirely different dimension. When Giselle comes around she finds herself in a strange place, New York City circa 2007.

Trapped with no way home, Giselle wanders the streets and hopes for Edward to rescue her. In the meantime she is taken in by Robert (Patrick Dempsey) and his six year old daughter Morgan(Rachel Covey). Morgan is convinced that Giselle is a real princess, Robert is more than just skeptical, he thinks she's a loon.

Enchanted, directed by animation vet Kevin Lima (Tarzan), sends up a number of classically Disney set pieces. From helpful woodland creatures, given a disturbingly New York twist, too characters breaking into impromptu song and dance routines choreographed as if Busby Berkley just happened to walk down the street spilling his imagination all over the place. Everything classically Disney is given a playful tweak.

Shrek tried and sometimes succeed in pulling  off the same irreverent trick but Enchanted is free of the snarkiness of the green ogre's jibes and the baggage of the Jeffrey Katzenberg litigiousness. It's nice to see Disney finally have a sense of humor about it's past and director Kevin Lima and writer Bill Kelly made that possible by not trying to destroy the tradition of the mouse house but reinvent it with a more modern sense of humor.

Of course, the real reason that Enchanted is so enchanting is star Amy Adams. This lovely young actress who burst on the scene with her Oscar nominated performance in Junebug, is the perfect choice to play a princess. With her warm welcoming eyes and her wonderful heart on her sleeve, Adams is exceptional in the role of Giselle. So good in fact is Ms. Adams that she could win an Oscar for this feather light comedy, she's that good here.

Patrick Dempsey, so charming as television's McDreamy on Grey's Anatomy, tones down the charm to play a classic romantic male lead, the hard hearted stuffed shirt who is softened by love and romance. Providing some grounding for the more magical elements of Enchanted, keep an on Dempsey for some of the films big visual gags as slowly but surely he gives into to all of the singing and dancing magic.

Enchanted is one of the best live action family films to come along in this decade. It's also one of the better romantic comedies as well. The magical premise, the bursts of music and humor make Enchanted truly a joy to behold. Best of all, the film delivers Amy Adams to mass audiences that didn't see Junebug or somehow missed her terrific supporting turn in Catch Me If You Can.

The tremendous star turn of Amy Adams combined with the heart filled yet irreverent script of Bill Kelly and the well managed direction of Kevin Lima make Enchanted a delight for families and romantics alike.

Movie Review Premonition

Premonition (2007) 

Directed by Mennon Yapo 

Written by Bill Kelly 

Starring Sandra Bullock, Julian McMahon, Nia Long, Kate Nelligan, Amber Valletta, Peter Stormare

Release Date March 16th, 2007

Published March 16th, 2007

Sandra Bullock's star has dimmed a great deal since the days when she was touted as replacing Julia Roberts as the queen of romantic comedy 12 years ago thanks to 1995's While You Were Sleeping. In this decade she has had only one legitimate hit movie, Miss Congeniality, that was sold on her star power. On the surface that would seem to reflect badly on Ms. Bullock.

In fact, however, there is a more complicated and interesting reason for her seeming decline. Sandra Bullock made the conscious choice not to be pigeonholed by her rom-com persona. Thus why she has made such eclectic and low key choices as  28 Days, Murder By Numbers and her small ensemble turn in the Oscar winner Crash. None of these movies has done anything for her box office reputation but they are, at the very least, risky and interesting choices.

For her latest film, the thriller Premonition, Bullock returns to big budget, mainstream, starring roles and chooses a most unlikely and uneven film choice. Premonition is a shallow, time shifting weepy about a woman who loses her husband over and over again until we in the audience aren't sure if we are cheering for Bullock to save her man or for the husband to finally disappear for good.

In Premonition, Sandra Bullock stars as Linda Hanson, a suburban mom of two lovely pre-teen girls (Shyann McLure and Courtney Taylor Burress). Her home is well tended, she runs everyday and keeps in great shape and yet there is something tearing at the fabric of her perfect suburban sprawl. Linda's husband Jim (Julian McMahon) has grown distant since the birth of their daughters and Linda doesn't know what to do about it.

All of that however, goes out the window when Jim is killed in a car accident. On his way to what he said was a job interview, though there is fair suspicion that Jim was meeting with another woman. Linda and her family are devastated, that is, till the next morning when Linda wakes up to find Jim in the kitchen making breakfast for his daughters.

Was it just a nightmare or a premonition? That becomes the point of the film as day after day Linda awakens to different days of the week and different realities before and after Jim's death.

Directed by German auteur Mennan Yapo, in his American debut, Premonition rolls out a time space continuum crossed with Groundhog Day plot and proceeds to beat it into the ground with repeated ridiculousness, lost and found plot lines and inconsistencies you could drive a semi truck through, oh sorry Jim.

The script by Bill Kelly, who has written nothing since the 1999 comedy Blast From the Past, is a mess of unfinished ideas and pointless existentialism. This is a film that is desperate to be deep but is far too lazy to figure out just what is deep or compelling about this plot. The story cannot even adhere to its own basic logic by connecting the various plot strands that either hang unfinished or simply peter out due to lack of interest.

Sandra Bullock has always had the ability to earn and keep an audience's sympathy and that is still the case; even in trash like Premonition. Even playing this ditzy, overwhelmed character who is blessed with all of the same knowledge that we in the audience are but refuses to make much use of it in her ever increasingly dire situation, Bullock somehow retains our sympathy.

The problem isn't Sandra Bullock, it's a bad script and a director more interested in camera histrionics and moody, gray skied atmosphere than in telling a smart compelling story. I must admit, director Mennan Yapo is a talented scenarist. With his best friend and cinematographer Torsten Lippstock, Yapo delivers some very interesting and unique visuals. His liberal use of handheld cameras gives the story a chaotic urgency that would have served well in a more coherent story. Unfortunately coherence is the last word I would use to describe the abysmal mess that is Premonition.

Sandra Bullock's best days at the box office are behind her but at least she still makes interesting and risky choices. Unfortunately, starring in Premonition isn't a choice that pays off well. Incoherent, ludicrous and outright irritating, this time twisting flick lacks the chills, thrills or even the modest entertainment value necessary for a successful film.

Sandra Bullock will walk away from Premonition still a sweetheart, still a presence who can win and hold your sympathy. It's the movie around her that suffers from its many plot holes and structural flaws.