Boring

A story that's too fascinating to pass by...

While it doesn't offer any answers, it both thrills and makes you think.

Worth seeing just to witness how winsome it is.

It is hinted in this version, that The Brothers Grimm "romanced" the story and this version is closer to the truth, but it is merely an extremely well-done alternate version, retaining the basic premise, the glass slippers and some pageantry. The slippers are invented by Leonardo Da Vinci, a wizard of a man but certainly not a fairy godmother! So many different "spins" on the well-known tale. Drew Barrymore acts more like a tomboy than a fairy princess and the royal family is quite unbelievable, but "that's those Royals for you". It borrows a bit from every version of Cinderella that you have ever seen and then drops it on it's ear. There is an evil rich lord who lusts after our heroine and has quite un-pure thoughts. Yet it retains the spunk of the more relaxed versions of "The Musketeers". Almost a "10" but it misses because it's a bit more violent than I expected. It is a far cry from being a sanitized Disney production. Enough "swashbuckling" that older children and adults will like it. A bit of blood as well, when The Lord finally gets his "due".

This is a Cinderella story, a famous fairy tale. Daniel is a girl who grows with her father's full of love. The life is so happy; however, suddenly she loses her father because of disease. She feels grief, and what is worse, her stepmother force her to labor as a servant in a house. One day, she encounters a man who rides on a horse, and she misunderstands the man tries to rob her father's horse, therefore, she throws a stone toward him. Later, she realizes he is a prince and she apologizes to him. He is so kind a person and since then the relation between the two gets better. The prince declares that he finds his future wife in a dance party because he does not want to marry a woman his father introduce. His real purpose is to get Daniel. Daniel manages to prepare for the party and goes there. Although she meets the prince again, her stepmother comes out that Daniel is a servant in public. Therefore, the reunion results to fail. However, the prince learns what is a genuine love. The first time I watched this film, I was so impressed and attracted because this is different from Cinderella story I've known. The part which shows such a different thing from what I've known is that Daniel fight for the prince or herself with bad people. A clip where Daniel uses sword is amazing. Such a powerful and beautiful woman is touching my heart. In addition to this, dance party scene is excellent, especially, just when Daniel arrives at the party. This is one of my favorites. I want to watch it again.

Ever After: A Cinderella Story (1998): Dir: Andy Tennant / Cast: Drew Barrymore, Dougrey Scott, Angelica Huston, Richard O'Brien, Melanie Lynskey: Winning charm brought to life with enchanting set pieces, beautiful photography and a title suggesting fairy tale love. Drew Barrymore plays a slave girl who impresses the Prince yet he doesn't understand her. One of the film's finer points is that it can make you laugh so naturally. When surrounded by bandits Barrymore is given opportunity to walk away with anything she can carry, so she stoops down and hoists the bewildered Prince over her shoulder. It is moments such as this that are rewarding but unfortunately the screenplay has not enough such moments. Directed by Andy Tennant who made Fools Rush In, and given an ending that will surprise no one. Barrymore is fantastic playing this slave girl as a bold underdog. Dougrey Scott plays a great foil to her lifestyle, as the Prince who is constantly overwhelmed with her persona. Supporting characters are the pitiful one-dimensional with Angelica Huston as the wicked step-mother as well as Richard O'Brien who makes a wasted appearance. Well made in terms of production but its familiarity may hinder its overall appeal. Modernization works in the end where Barrymore doesn't necessarily encounter stagecoaches but the slipper stays in tact. Score: 7 / 10

I am usually wary of films based on fairy tales; with the exception of the brilliant animated classics of the Disney studio and the occasional musical (Rodgers and Hammerstein's version of this very story), most of them are boring at best and dreadful at worst. So it was a delightful surprise to experience EVER AFTER: A Cinderella STORY, a film that brings a refreshingly feminist sensibility to the main character without violating the fantasy.We all know the story: Cinderella (named Danielle here and beautifully played by Drew Barrymore) lives with her nasty stepmother (Angelica Huston, looking like a cobra) and her two stepsisters, Marguerite (Megan Dodds) and Jacqueline (Melanie Lynskey). Her father is dead, and her stepmother has relegated her to the status of household servant. Her stepsisters are not equally nasty: Marguerite is as bitchy and spoiled as her mother, but Jacqueline is made of softer stuff and tries to make Danielle's life easier, though she isn't strong enough to actually defy her terrifying mother (at least not until the end of the picture).Of course, the core of the film is the romance between Danielle and Prince Henry (Dougray Scott); when they first meet she quotes from Sir Thomas More's UTOPIA, one of the few possessions of her father's that she has left; the prince is not only struck by her beauty, but fascinated that a "commoner" (and a woman at that, though this is left unsaid) can quote from great literature. Danielle hides her identity from the prince; when he asks her name she gives him the name of her deceased mother.I don't need to go into details. A few plot devices have been added, which is fine because this is the sort of tale that was probably passed on from mother to child in an oral tradition long before anyone put pen to paper. Drew Barrymore's Cinderella is not only breathtakingly lovely, she's fiercely intelligent and possessed of an iron will. Prince Henry is a refreshingly real character; in his first encounter with Danielle he reveals his contempt for "commoners" and is sharply instructed by Danielle, which does not make him angry but only fascinates him the more. The rest is mostly intact: the ball, the Prince's discovery of Danielle's true identity, and his almost-marriage to a most unwilling Spanish princess in what is easily the funniest scene in the whole film.The cast is uniformly magnificent, though the accents are a bit variable. Aside from Huston, Barrymore, and Megan Dodds, all of the principal actors are some form of British (Dougray Scott is Scottish and was trained in Wales and Melanie Lynskey is from New Zealand). Of the Americans in the cast, Megan Dodds pulls off the English accent the best; in fact I was quite surprised to learn she was born in California. Barrymore's accent is adequate; the passion she brings to the role more than makes up for minuscule patterns of speech. Huston's accent is more Upper West Side NY aristocracy than anything else, but again, the actress throws herself into the role with a gusto that makes the rest easy to overlook.Also on hand is one of my favorite English character actresses, Judy Parfitt (DOLORES CLAIBORNE), who plays the Queen of France as a delightfully human woman, who loves her son and wants only the best for him, and also loves her husband enough that she can laugh and tease him, but when necessary she becomes regal, icy, and every inch the Queen, whom one can imagine yelling "OFF WITH HIS/HER HEAD!!"This sort of film is risky territory, because the tales we remember from childhood often remain vivid in our minds and it's a rare film that can take whatever liberties the writers and director take and still be pleasing. This one is probably one of the best; it is beautifully written, acted, and photographed, the costumes are sumptuous, and the writers cleverly inject enough comic relief to keep the mood light.As romances go this one hits a home run.