Hilary Duff starring as a modern day Cinderella with cell phones in Los Angeles? The premise to “A Cinderella Story” had cheese written all over it. We all know the story of Cinderella, so it’s not like there was a surprise around every corner. Yet somehow, the movie was enjoyable.

The Movie

Duff plays Sam, who is forced to live with her evil botox-obsessed step-mother (Jennifer Coolidge) after her father dies in an earthquake. She spends her whole life scrubbing floors and doing whatever her step-mother says because she needs her money to go to Princeton, where she plans on finding her prince.

An e-relationship begins with the most popular boy (Chad Michael Murray) in school, but Sam is afraid to let him know that she is the one who he has been secretly conversing with for so many months. They agree to meet at the school’s costume party, where she hides her identity by wearing a small black cloth to cover just her eyes. Everyone is fooled and nobody knows who she is. How simply covering her eyes can keep her identity a secret is a mystery to us all.

The producers do a superb job modernizing the classic fairytale. It is definitely a teen flick, but without the feeling of a dumbed-down storyline. The plot, with the expected predictability, was clever, the characters were well developed, and Duff plays Cinderella like no other young actress would be able to. Perfect choice.

Extra Features

A very interesting feature that is normally not included is the actors’ screen tests. Actors are usually embarrassed because they are without their makeup and it looks like a homemade movie. But it is interesting to see Chad Michael Murray’s first screen test with Duff and how far along the character came. It might not have been a reflection of his acting, but Murray first portrayed his character as a shy and quiet guy, whereas in the movie, the “prince” is much more confident.

There’s a look into how they made Hilary Duff look like an average girl. (You can’t, they failed, but at least the makeup artists acknowledge the difficulty in such a task.)

Plus, the usuals are included: commentary, deleted scenes, trailers, and a game.

4*

For more information on A Cinderella Story, visit acinderellastory.com






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