Adams Magical in Wondrous Enchanted
Disney’s latest confectionary family-friendly treat Enchanted is one of the best they’ve whipped up in years. Better than that, it features a break-out performance from Junebug Oscar-nominee Amy Adams ranking as one of the very best we’ve seen all year. Not bad for a silly-sounding picture about an animated fairly tale princess pushed down a well only to land in the big bad three-dimensional real world of cutthroat New York City. Not bad at all.
Amy Adams and Patrick Dempsey have an animated conversation in Walt Disney Pictures' Enchanted
Giselle (Adams) has fallen in love with the dashing Prince Edward (James Marsden) but the man’s scheming mother Queen Narissa (Susan Sarandon) isn’t about to let the wedding happen without a fight. The day her son takes a bride is the day this powerful sorceress loses her crown, and if keeping this from happening means sending the bubble-headed girly-girl into a freakish alien dimension then so be it.
Suddenly smack dab in the middle of The Big Apple having to deal with emotions and feelings (not to mention bad hair days) she’s never known, Giselle finds friendship in the unlikely visage of divorce attorney Robert Philip (Patrick Dempsey) and his wide-eyed daughter Morgan (Rachel Covey). But this help comes at a price, the lawyer’s longtime girlfriend Nancy (Idina Menzel) starting to wonder if her beau’s eyes are wandering from her loving glare to this newcomer’s almost animated twinkle.
Soon this girl with a penchant for song and a strange ability to talk with the animals is coming to the realization life might be more then waiting for your prince to come. But with her son also in New York searching for his heart’s duet Narissa isn’t going to take any chances, finally coming to the city herself to make sure Giselle can’t destroy the happy life she’s vindictively made for herself back at home.
It’s pretty silly and standard stuff even for Disney, and yet Bill Kelly’s screenplay is so much fun and full of such wondrous joy I’m almost willing to pardon him for his heinous writing on the Sandra Bullock disaster Premonition. Heck, Enchanted might be the best old-school animated film the studio has made since Beauty & the Beast, the fact most of it is told in live action and not hand-drawn Technicolor a relatively minor (and mute) point as far as I’m concerned.
But as great as all of this is (and top to bottom from the casting to the direction to the photography to Alan Menken and Stephen Schwartz’s giddily fantastical songs it is all truly stupendous) the reason this movie goes beyond being an endearing time passer and becomes something wondrous is all due to Adams. She owns this movie first frame to last, her performance so brilliant it literally bounces right off the screen.
There is a moment where Giselle realizes she can get angry that ranks as one of the very best I’ve seen this year, the pastiche of emotional flourishes swiftly moving over the actress’ face so effervescently magical I wanted to rewind the scene so I could watch it again. If I have my druthers Adams will get her second Oscar nomination, part of me even hoping she can pull of the same Julie Andrews Mary Poppins miracle and actually win the darn golden statue outright.
Be all of that as it may, I predict this feature is going to be a monstrous hit with both kids and parents alike. The problems here (including a dragon-fueled Sleeping Beauty finale that’s unfortunately a bit lukewarm) are relatively few and incredibly minor, the highs outnumbering the lows by at least a triple digit margin. I loved this movie, managed even to talk my way (thank you Disney publicists – you know who you are) into three separate screenings. The film is downright perfect, and for those looking for entertainment the entire family will enjoy Enchanted is definitely the instant classic everyone has been waiting for.
