Enchanted
DIR: Kevin Lima • WRI: Bill Kelly • PROD: Barry Sonnenfeld, Barry Josephson. • DOP: Don Burgess  • ED: Gregory Perler, Stephen A. Rotter • DES: Stuart Wurtzel • CAST: Julie Andrews, Amy Adams, James Marsden, Susan Sarandon, Patrick Dempsey, Timothy Spall, Rachel Covey, Samantha Ivers

Enchanted is an aptly named movie. Its sparkling confection of music, wit, and wish-fulfillment fantasy is just the thing to weave a magic spell over audiences. The wonderful acting of Amy Adams as the starry-eyed heroine is sure to captivate and ensnare the viewer. And as with any enchantment, one ought to be wary of malicious spirits.

One hates to be a Grinch at Christmas time, but delightful though Enchanted is, and lovable as its characters are, it's rotten at the core. Beneath the glossy, enticing surface of Disney's latest blockbuster are insidious traces of the very kinds of laissez-faire sexism, cynical class politics and casual prejudice from which the movie at first appears to wish to distance itself.

In a hilarious opening riff we meet Giselle (Adams), your traditional Disney heroine who's waiting for her prince to come rescue her. Giselle sings with her animal friends, before falling into the arms of Prince Edward (James Marsden). We know it's true love, because they finish each other's duets. So far, so very very cute. However, Edward's stepmother the queen doesn't want him to marry, as his marriage will mean that he gets her throne (such being the unfair gender politics of fairyland, I guess). On the wedding day, she gets the new bride out of the way by shoving Giselle down a well. This begins the live action film proper.

Giselle ends up in the real world, lost and mistreated by the crowds and traffic of New York. Her prince follows her, but is rather hampered by the fact that he's a completely self-involved cretin (but actually, so amusingly so that he pretty much steals the film), and also by his companion (Timothy Spall) who is secretly working for the queen to try and stop the happy ending.

Meanwhile, Giselle meets the new romantic hero, Robert (Dempsey, a pragmatic and somewhat skeptical divorce attorney with a six-year-old daughter who, like most six-year-old girls, loves fairy tales and princesses. He also has a long term girlfriend with whom he is in a committed relationship, which is where the film begins to go askew.

Disney was between a rock and a hard place making this film. Their unenviable task was to attempt to revisit the fantastical charm of the fairytale love story without the schmaltz the Shrek movies so brilliantly lampooned. The film works well when it's making fun of the tropes of earlier films in Disney's oeuvre. Its attempt to reinvent the magic and romance of those same films in a modern, realist world is less successful.

In the magical realm of fairy tales, princesses prove their purity by singing songs with woodland folk. They are lifted out of their social spheres by altruistic fairy godmothers. They fall recklessly in love on only a few days acquaintance, and seal their fate with the magic of true love's kiss. Enchanted teasingly makes fun of all these conventions. When transplanted to the real world, Giselle learns that things are quite different.

Here in the real world, princesses prove their purity by convincing divorcing couples to give it another shot, because true love should be forever (er, unless of course your own new beau already has an inconvenient girlfriend). They are lifted out of their social spheres by going on exorbitant shopping trips on their new sugar daddy's credit card. And love? Well they fall recklessly in love on only a few days' acquaintance, and seal their fate with the magic of true love's kiss...

Enchanted presents this side of the equation with an unnerving lack of irony.

If one can overlook this – and it's a lot to overlook – Enchanted is an entertaining film. Adams is a perfect mixture of naivety and sweetness without being irritating. The gags based on early Disney movie conventions are sometimes inspired (my particular favourite was the animal helpmates routine, given a special twist for the New York City urban environment.) Marsden steals the show as Prince Edward. The climax of the film, where Susan Sarandon's wicked queen takes a leaf from Melificent's book and transforms into a dragon, shows just how far CGI has come in the art of enchantment since Sleeping Beauty (even if it rather begs the question why a woman who can turn into a dragon would mess around with poisoned apples in the first place, but perhaps the queen is a traditionalist).

At the end of the day, however, Enchanted has rather too much in common with the poisoned apples which play a prominent role in its plot. It may not put you to sleep, but it's a sturdy digestive system that can devour it all and not at least notice an unpleasant aftertaste.

Sarah Monica Crofton

Rated PG (see IFCO website for details)
Enchanted is released on 14th December 2007
Enchanted – Official website