Enchanted

I just saw Enchanted with my parents. I had heard some good reviews from people who weren’t seven years old, so I thought it might be a good movie.

I really liked it! It had some of my favorite actors: Amy Adams (*heart*), Patrick Dempsey (who is a lot sexier than when he plays McDreamy), the actually-really-handsome James Marsden (playing his favorite role of the jilted lover), and a cute little girl who ISN’T being played by Abigail Breslin. And a surprise: Dempsey’s S.O. is played by Idina Menzel!! Don’t hold your breath waiting for her to sing, though — she doesn’t.

The plot weaves in a lot of elements of classic Disney princess fiction, particularly Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. But there are funny little twists everywhere, and it does poke fun a little at the genre. One of my favorite scenes is where Giselle begins a song in Central Park, and the passersby all join in the singing and dancing. This is basically what I wish would happen every day.

Ok, this is the part where I read random things into the movie and go off on my own tangents. For Enchanted, the theme is the immigrant’s experience. Giselle is basically a foreigner in New York City, a city full of immigrants (including a lot of weirdos from a lot of other movies). Unlike in these other movies, however, we get to see not only her adaptation to the city, but her becoming a cultural bridge (appropriately, in a scene on the Brooklyn Bridge) and introducing the city to someone else from her land. It’s the dual coping — both with the new country and with newer arrivals from the old country — and the new appreciation of one’s old culture after a transformation, that make this more than a fish-out-of-water story and really an observation on the immigration experience. Giselle and Edward could easily be many of the Chinese couples I know where the husband has remained in Asia to earn a living, while the wife copes by herself in the U.S. for the first time. When the husband does arrive, it’s kind of a shock when they realize how different they have become.

I’ll try not to spoil the movie, but I will say that, in the end, fantasy (basically) wins out. And that was slightly disappointing, for all the possibilities that could have been. Little girls will still run out wanting to be the princess and find their Prince Charmings and believing life and love to be simple. But, I guess, it’s not that disappointing, because a little part of me does want to believe in the fantasy. True love and all that nonsense.

Anyways, this movie is recommended!

Tags: Amy Adams, Disney, Enchanted, immigration, James Marsden, Patrick Dempsey