MOVIEGOER REVIEW: ENCHANTED
For the last decade or so, The Walt Disney Company has been associated with mighty and loud blockbusters. "Pirates of the Caribbean," "National Treasure" and a partnership with action producer Jerry Bruckheimer seemed to reshape, if not erase, the Disney image once held by dedicated moviegoers. Long gone were the magical mixed animation and live action films of my youth. "Mary Poppins" and "Bedknobs and Broomsticks" weren't the films kids or adults wanted anymore. If it is wasn't big and expensive it wasn't worth it.
Until now. "Enchanted," a throwback fairy tale about a soon-to-be princess lost in New York is old school Disney. Starring the elegant Amy Adams, Susan Sarandon, James Marsden and Patrick Dempsey (we all know him best as McDreamy on television's "Grey's Anatomy"), the film is a Snow White tale, fresh with a wicked stepmother and a poisonous apple.
It begins with traditional two-dimensional animation and finds its way to live action when Adams' Giselle is rudely pushed down into a water well. When she crawls out of a manhole in Times Square she finds McDreamy and the sparks begin to fly.
Adams, who exploded onto the scene with her infecting sweetness in 2005's "Junebug" for which she was nominated for an Academy Award, channels that same goodness in this role, one that is far more complex and requires her to sing.
It's an award-worthy performance, and the comparisons to Julie Andrews are practically impossible. Much like Ms. Andrews, Adams takes a film aimed at children and young adults and makes it grand, expanding its appeal to people of all ages. It takes a special actor to do that, and this film proves just how special Ms. Adams is.
