I have a younger cousin who loves silly teen movies. Even though she’s in college now, she still likes watching movies about high school kids and all the melodrama that goes along with that age group. So it’s not surprising that she has a copy of 2004’s A Cinderella Story in her DVD collection. What is surprising is that my cousin thought it was a good movie — and that she actually convinced me to check it out.
Plot summary (with possible spoilers): The movie’s title pretty much covers the plot: this is basically a modern-day Cinderella story that has all the components you’d expect, from the wicked stepmother and mean stepsisters to the eventual triumph of Cinderella as she gets everything that’s rightfully hers — along with Prince Charming, of course — by the time the credits roll.
Cinderella in this story is Sam (played by Hillary Duff), a high school senior whose kind father died in an earthquake a few years ago. Since Sam’s father didn’t have a will, she’s left in the care of her stepmother Fiona (Jennifer Coolidge), who treats her more like the hired help than a daughter. Indeed, Fiona has two daughters of her own, spoiled dimwits named Brianna (Madeline Zima) and Gabriella (Andrea Avery) who of course go out of their way to be mean to Sam.
Sam dreams of the day when she can go off to college to get away from Fiona and her stepsisters. She wants to go to Princeton and is sure her GPA is good enough. It’s just a matter of getting Fiona to pay for the tuition. To help make that happen, Sam spends almost every waking hour (when she’s not in school or studying) washing dishes and mopping floors in the family diner.
She somehow manages to find time to strike up an online relationship with a boy who also wants to go to Princeton. They only know each other by screen name and they’ve never met, but they go to the same high school. They like each other’s online personalities, and arrange to meet at the school’s upcoming costume ball.
The boy happens to be Austin Ames (Chad Michael Murray), the blonde-haired, blue-eyed hottie who is the most popular boy in school, captain of the football team, and president of the Senior Class. Oh, and of course he’s dating the prettiest girl in school, who also happens to be the bitchiest. Big surprise.
Austin arrives at the dance without a real costume, so Sam’s able to see who her admirer is. But she’s wearing a mask, so Austin doesn’t know who she is for sure. They talk, they dance, they flirt… they hit it off, but then Sam has to leave suddenly so she can get back to work before her stepmother finds out that she’s gone. Austin is left hanging, without ever finding out her name.
The rest of the movie then deals with Austin’s search for his Cinderella and the problems that unfold once it’s revealed that the mystery girl is Sam. Plus, the whole college question gets answered as well, thanks to the timely discovery of Sam’s father’s will.
My Reaction: What can I say about a movie like this? It’s called A Cinderella Story, so it wouldn’t have been fair to expect to be surprised by the plot. It played out exactly as expected, with no surprises, no twists or turns, nothing new. The only thing that could have made this movie worth watching was the performance or charisma of the actors, and unfortunately, I’m too old to be impressed by either Duff or Murray. So the movie was an incredible bore for me, as it slowly crawled to its inevitable conclusion.
I won’t even bother to list the silly plot contrivances here (like how Austin couldn’t recognize Sam even though she just wore the tiniest of masks that left most of her face revealed), but there would be plenty to choose from. Even if these contrivances weren’t in the script, we’d still just be stuck with… another Cinderella story.
I know I’m not part of the target demographic for this movie, so I can’t rate it too harshly. I’ll give it 5.0 stars out of 10 from an adult’s perspective, and warn anyone over the age of 14 to steer clear of this film. Younger girls might like it, but I’m not sure that anyone else would.
I made it clear in my recaps how disappointed I was with Season 6 of 24. I really like the whole concept of that show, how it’s pretty much nonstop action with a plot full of twists, turns, and double-crosses, and I think Jack Bauer is one of the best TV characters of all time, but Season 6 was a terrible misstep. The writers and producers moved away from the key elements that made the show so successful when they decided to focus on characterization instead of sheer action.