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Penelope is a young woman who was born with a family curse thatdeformed her nose into that of a pig's snout. The only way to break thecurse is for her to be loved by one of her "own kind", i.e. ablue-blood. Men run from the sight of her and it appears the curse willnever be lifted, as she's so ugly no one can get to know her. Of coursethere's a young man (James McAvoy) whose greed lifts to reveal a trueheart. It's a predictable tale of personal acceptance, with awell-meaning but damaging screech of a mother (Catherine O'Hara) and anindulgent, loving, guilt-ridden father (Robert E. Grant). All turns outwell in the end, and I daren't give it away here. You'll have to seefor yourself.
It's been a long time since I was 13, but that'swhere this fairy tale movie took me. (Not to mention that I took mynewly-13-year-old young girlfriend with me.) There are no big bad scaryparts nor any evil incarnate. You really need to be a teenager toappreciate it for its message, which is to love yourself no matter whatanyone else says. The PG rating must come from the two innuendos Icounted that came from the always delightful Reese Witherspoon, whichblew right over the top of my young friend's head. Ms. Witherspoon'sperformance as a zany, outgoing straight shooter made the movie muchmore fun for me and shook up the plodding blandness in which the moviewas threatening to bog down. Christina Ricci (Penelope) is entirely toopretty, even with a snout nose, for the audience to believe that youngmen would run in fear at the first sight of her. James McAvoy ispleasant and easy to watch (from our 13-year-old point of view), andthe rest of the cast are familiar faces with exaggerated acting.
Itwasn't difficult to enjoy this movie, as there really isn't anythingoffensive or objectionable in either the storyline or the characters.It's a fun movie to take a young friend to, and we had a good timecrushing on McAvoy. However, I recommend that you DO take an adolescentto it, or be one yourself, or the overall blandness will bore yousilly.
