"Penelope" (2008)

This is a modern tale of romance depicting a young girl born under a curse that gave her the facial features of a pig. The curse can only be broken once she finds true love and someone who will love her faithfully.

I’m not entirely sure what to say to this. My initial thought was how clichéd it was probably going to feel being based around the idea of “true love is the only thing to break the spell”, but I was prepared to look past this given that this film is probably aimed at younger viewers anyway(!)

*clears throat* I’d never seen it and was curious since it had James McAvoy...  

However, as I started watching it, my disgruntlement settled on Penelope’s mother.  I know she may mean well, but the woman is, to some extent, quite horrible. A mother is supposed to love their children no matter what kind of “flaw” or “imperfection” they might be born with but this one just made such a deal out of it, like it was the most awful thing ever! And what’s more, it was an awful thing for her, not necessarily Penelope (despite what she said). What struck me was the fact she couldn’t actually bring herself to call her daughter beautiful. I just can’t help thinking it’s a wonder Penelope turned out as self-assured as she did. I mean, her mother’s blatant fixation on the idea that Penelope is ugly, could have resulted in giving her daughter severely low self-esteem. I’m amazed Penelope’s character wasn’t suffering from it, and I was, frankly, quite appalled by the way her mother was treating the situation. I mean…the pig’s nose wasn’t actually that bad. Ok, it wasn’t the most wonderful feature to have in the world, but other than that she was a lovely looking girl. I feel she could have, and should have, handled amending the curse a whole lot better. I just found her whole attitude infuriating. Because what message is this sending to the audience? = 'You have a huge imperfection so no one is going to love you (not even your mother, evidently). And even if you do decide to embrace it, people will no more accept you as they will use you, treating you like some object to be “glorified”.

Given the genre that it is, this film is fairly predictable, so I don’t have much reservations in talking about the ending. While it is a bit clichéd, it was I suppose better that the curse was broken once she realised she was happy with herself and didn’t want to change who she was. But you see, what peeved me further was the way she ended up with James McAvoy’s character AFTER the curse was lifted. Ok, fair enough, we did learn he had grown to genuinely care about her before he knew the curse was lifted…but it’s all well and easy stating these things and carrying them through afterwards, isn’t it? I’d have loved it if he had been the one to potentially break the curse, kissed her or whatever was “necessary”, only to then realise the curse didn’t break and it was never actually going to, but he still wanted to be with her, pig’s nose or not. When push came to shove would he have really stayed with her even with the nose? We’ll never know now! Perhaps this is me being cynical but I’m not convinced. He got repulsed enough not to stay before, why wouldn’t he again? It was too easy.

Having said this, I did like that he didn’t run when he first saw her like all the others. Ok, he jumped, but…he still stayed and had tact enough to give her a chance. I think the interaction between them during this moment was perfect: the way she just stood there and neither spoke as he came slowly towards her. I’ve made it sound so belittling for her but really both their reactions were perfect in my opinion.

I feel like this would have been a film I’d have loved at a young age. But it would have been for all the wrong reasons. I appreciate the message they’re trying to get across but I don’t think they get it across effectively or strongly enough. There are still some few loose ends as such that could have been knotted tighter…so to speak. I feel it doesn’t do enough to un-warp what the human perception of “beauty” has become. Or to alter this idea that there is such a thing as “ugly”. People didn’t ever actually accept Penelope, as I say, they just used her as this “object” to be “glorified”. It’s just wrong. What really struck me was the fact that she thought they had accepted her and she thought they were her friends. I felt so sorry for her.

I’d love for there to be a film in which the hero or heroin has a really obvious physical “flaw” (such as this) but it’s not mentioned or made a fuss of. It’s just there; move on. I mean…why is it absolutely essential that the main characters do almost always seem to look “perfect” whether it be consciously done or not. Maybe such a story exists already and I just have yet to come across it! Because it’s not that it wouldn’t sell, I don’t accept this reason. Not everyone is perfect and movies shouldn’t stereotype certain positions of characters in this way. I just found this really annoying.

Ok, I’m very sorry. Rant over.

I feel like I’ve been very negative which nobody wants to read… Because it’s not that I thought this was a bad movie. For what it is, it’s quite a good movie. James McAvoy is in it so how could you not enjoy it?! He's a brilliant actor and really great at accents actually! I don’t think I’d have recognised him only for his name being on the posters! I suppose it has to be said that his character wasn’t perfect either which was nice. He was far from the typical “Prince Charming” if you will. He had his own problems like with his gambling addictions etc, which the film did focus on a bit, it wasn’t all on Penelope. The film didn’t exactly make effort to make him anything more than what he was, which I liked.

I didn’t realise Reese Witherspoon was in this film actually until I started watching it and she’s a great actress. I’ve never seen Christina Ricci in anything else so I can’t compare, but she was pretty great at playing Penelope too.

  

In retrospect, I should have known this subject matter wasn’t going to agree too well with me, personally…Because I do get what they're trying to do with it...It's just in my opinion they don't quite do it...I don't know...But that doesn’t mean it’s a film to be missed. I would never tell anyone not to watch it, it's still definitely worth a viewing!! I think if you enjoyed the likes of Nanny McPhee then you would probably enjoy this too. 

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