Penelope is a picture-perfect romantic fable featuring a wonderful cast, a great sense of humour and a generous heart.
Fables have a habit of starting with a curse from the past, and Penelope is no exception. Centuries ago, a witch proclaimed that the next girl born to the aristocratic Wilhern family will have the nose of a pig. Generations pass, until Jessica (Catherine O'Hara) and Franklin (Richard E. Grant) lose the sorcery lottery. Their otherwise lovely daughter, Penelope (Christina Ricci), has a porcine snout. After the London gutter press, led by ferocious cub reporter Lemon (Peter Dinklage), gets a misleadingly scary photo of the sweet thing, her parents lock her away in a beautiful mansion.
The curse can be lifted, it is said, if Penelope marries a man of her own class but, despite their enormous wealth, her parents cannot find a suitor. Bewildered gentlemen end up flinging themselves through windows the second they see her - until Max (James McAvoy) comes along. He is a blue-blood addicted to gambling, with a sad heart and a devil-may-care attitude. Though he has a dastardly ulterior motive for meeting Penelope, the two become unlikely friends.
Penelope trades charmingly on familiar storytelling traditions, but it is also briskly modern in unexpected ways. The film is as much about celebrity culture and media manipulation as it is a princess story. Its second half also features a marvellous detour into a girl buddy movie when Penelope, now out in the world, meets tough-as-nails delivery girl Annie, played with hilarious aplomb by Reese Witherspoon. Last year's Academy Award® winner for best actress is a producer of Penelope, and much of the film's charm reflects her charmingly old-fashioned, playful persona.
Penelope is a lovely young woman cursed with a pig's snout for a nose. Potential suitors would often take the shortest route out of her house after seeing her nose, which often means through the second story window.
(47 votes)
3.
Christina Ricci stars as Penelope, a young woman aiming to shake off a long-standing family curse and find her true identity in this debut feature from director Mark Palansky.
(39 votes)
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