The film begins in the past, laying the groundwork for the curse, and for the film's attempt to mix a contemporary sensibility with an old world feel. We're informed that the Wilhern Family has been able to avoid the curse for decades because the curse was aimed only at Wilhern girls. For generations only boys were born into the family, and the one girl born was a Wilhern in name only (her mother had had an affair with one of the servants). So when Jessica (Catherithe O'Hara) and Franklin (Richard E. Grant) deliver their first child, they are shocked to find that their bouncing bundle of joy has pig ears and a piggy snout. Oink! That's the curse, and it cannot be broken until one of the WIlhern's kind - a blue blood - accepts Penelope. She must find her one true love from among the aristocrats, "one who will love her faithfully" and forever. Not an easy task when you're looking down a pig snout.
Peter Dinklage plays a reporter out to get the scoop on Penelope. (Summit Entertainment)
Jessica's response to the whole thing is to lock her daughter up so no one can see what she looks like. Of course this makes the press curious, especially a man named Lemon (Peter Dinklage) who gets his eye poked out trying to photograph baby Penelope. This prompts Jessica to fake her daughter's death, and then in secret to try and find her a groom to break the curse. Along the way, the bitter Lemon hooks up with Edward (Simon Woods), a blue blood who went to interview as a suitor for Penelope but fled in horror when he saw her face. Now Lemon and Edward are involved in a scheme to reveal Penelope to the world. In order to achieve this, they employ the help of Max ( Atonement's James McAvoy), whom they believe to be a down-on-his-luck blue blood. Meanwhile, poor Penelope grows tired of her gilded cage and just wants to get out and see the world.
The main thing working in Penelope's favor is the charming presence of Christina Ricci. She's a delight, and she keeps us engaged even when the script and directing let us down. Ricci manages to be sweet but not syrupy; innocent but not dumb. Ricci was apparently actor-producer Reese Witherspoon's first choice to play the role, and Witherspoon was absolutely right. (Witherspoon, who has a small part in the film, produced it under her Type A production banner.) Not only does Ricci get the emotions right but she has lovely expressive eyes, which is important since she spends much of the film with half her face covered by a big scarf. She also has a pleasing voice that manages to intrigue Max before he gets a good look at her.
Although the film appears to be set in London, first time feature director Mark Palansky tries to keep the setting vague as if it could be anywhere, and therefore more universal. He also requires an odd mix of accents from his performers. O'Hara, Ricci, and Dinklage sound American; Shaun of the Dead's Nick Frost (as a gambler) takes on some kind of wiseguy accent; Woods opts for his native British; but Grant and McAvoy fall somewhere in the mid-Atlantic. So not only is this a little distracting - because it's so erratic - but it also means that we don't get to hear McAvoy's enchanting Scots accent. What a shame. But McAvoy, who won female audiences over with his performance as the wronged lover in Atonement , continues to sweep young women off their feet.
Christina Ricci and James McAvoy in Penelope (Summit Entertainment)
The problem with the film, however, is that the script by Leslie Caveny is not so enchanting. This modern fairy tale needs to flow effortlessly and Caveny's script has so much clunky plot manipulation that it's hard for the story to achieve the lightness it needs. Caveny, who comes from TV sitcom writing and producing, gives the film a sitcom feel in terms of the style of humor and narrative arc. The one good thing about this is that Caveny keeps the film short. One of the central and awkward contrivances in the film revolves around Edward. He gets so freaked out by Penelope's appearance (hard to imagine since she's given such a cute upturned piggy nose) that he tries to report her to the police for fear she will come after him and eat him. This gets him branded as insane by the press and his attempts to correct this perception fuel a considerable amount of the film's action but in a most unconvincing manner. The script and Palansky's direction try desperately to force quirky appeal onto the story, rather than finding a way to let it flow naturally. The one nice twist that they almost pull off gracefully is allowing Penelope to hold her own fate in her hands. Like the heroine in Robert Munsch's children's book The Paper Bag Princess , Penelope has the means to rescue herself without relying on any men, and that's refreshing.
There's some wonderful production design from Amanda McArthur in the film, but most of it ends up as mere set dressing. The details are simply lost because Penelope isn't integrated into her environment, she doesn't interact much with the things in her room so McArthur's work is somewhat wasted. As I alluded to earlier the make up, by Paul Gooch and Liz Tagg, is cute rather than scary or grotesque, after all this is a romantic comedy. Costumes by Jill Taylor are nice but like the script they try a little too hard to be quirky. If ever a film needed a Tim Burton touch, this one is it.
Penelope (PG for thematic elements, some innuendo and language) is adorable and easy to watch thanks to the charms of its leads Ricci and McAvoy. But it's too much a mainstream Hollywood product and not enough of a spunky indie spirit to really win audiencces over. One of the tag lines for the film is "What makes us different makes us beautiful." But in the end the problem with the film is that it doesn't really believe that. Differences are okay if they are on the inside. But differences on the outside - especially if they make you unattractive - really aren't acceptable. Just as the movie version of William Steig's Shrek made the ogres into a cute kind of ugly, Penelope isn't really willing to give us a true ugly duckling and it definitely doesn't want to embrace an ugly duckling that stays ugly. For a classic tale of beauty and the beast I recommend Jean Cocteau's La Belle et la Bete. For a genuinely quirky revisionist take on fairy tales, and one that's not quite so happily ever, I'd recommend Edward Scissorhands.
Companion viewing: La Belle et la Bete, Edward Scissorhands, In the Company of Wolves, Mona Lisa, The Princess Bride, The Muppets Take Manhattan
