Published: Thursday, 31st January, 2008 11:30am

Enchanted

by Narin Bahar

Comments (0) | Print | Email

Cinema Review

Amy Adams in Enchanted. Picture copyright Disney.

There are two ways to deal with watching a film like Enchanted. You can either sit stonyfaced in horror at the saccharine-like schmaltzfest or you can settle back, throw yourself into the fun and basically be embraced by the cinematic equivalent of a slightly over-enthusiastic but very warm hug. I chose the latter.

A classic Disney fairytale collides with modern-day New York City when a fairytale princess (Amy Adams) is sent to our world by an evil queen. Soon after her arrival, Princess Giselle begins to change her views on life and love after meeting a handsome divorce lawyer played by Grey's Anatomy's very lovely Patrick Dempsey. But can a storybook view of romance survive in the real world?

The mix of animation with live action is really striking and the uniformly fun cast - also boasting Susan Sarandon, Timothy Spall, X-Men's James Marsden, and Julie Andrews - looks like they're having a ball.

The songs are Oscar nominated and it's easy to see why, with the That's How You Know sheer exuberant fun and surely a shoo-in for an Oscar, doing the kind of ensemble dance routine you'd get in a Disney cartoon on the streets of New York to hilarious effect.

A more shameless reviewer would describe this as 'enchanting', I shall instead give it four stars. Borrow a small child, leave your cynicism at the door and have a lovely afternoon out.