'Ella' thoroughly enchanting

By Michael O'Sullivan
The Washington Post

ELLA ENCHANTED (PG, 95 minutes) — Contains slapstick, humorous flatulence, the phrase "Bite me" and glimpses of an ogre's naked derriere.

Cursed since birth by her well-meaning but shortsighted godmother, Lucinda (Vivica A. Fox), a fairy who has given her goddaughter the magical "gift" of unfailing obedience, teen-age Ella (Anne Hathaway) must do whatever anyone says, whenever they say it. While this sometimes leads to all-too-literal interpretations of offhand commands ("Hold your tongue," for example), it gets Ella in her hottest water when her widowed father (Patrick Bergin) remarries, bringing into Ella's up-to-then happy home a cruel stepmother (Joanna Lumley) and two even crueler stepsisters (Lucy Punch and Jennifer Higham), both of whom take at times criminal advantage of Ella's compulsory pliancy when they figure out exactly why she's such a doormat.

As soon as they do, they force Ella to shoplift from the village mall, for example. (Although ostensibly set in medieval times, the film is filled with such quasi-contemporary touches as wooden escalators, Crockery Barn stores and a wrinkle remedy called bat-ox injections.)

But when her stepsisters force Ella to renounce her best friend, Areida (Parminder K. Nagra), simply because Areida is of a different race, they go too far. Ella resolves at that point to run away from home, going in search of her godmother in the hope that Lucinda will be able to break the spell.

Needless to say, there's a handsome prince (Hugh Dancy) involved, too, although Ella is considerably less smitten with his hunky highness than her goo-goo-eyed stepsisters are. That's because our left-leaning protagonist associates the heir apparent with the restrictive and at times genocidal policies of his wicked uncle (Cary Elwes, backed by a CGI snake voiced by Steve Coogan). What's more, these policies affect primarily the kingdom's oppressed population of elves, giants and ogres, all of whom used to get along with humans just fine. "Say No to Ogrecide" is a banner Ella unfurls at one of the prince's public appearances, which, despite Ella's injection of politics, have a tendency to degenerate into Elvis-style frenzies of adolescent lust once word gets out that he has left the castle.

Despite the numerous winking in-jokes tailored to a modern audience, "Ella Enchanted" feels like a cinematic throwback, and I mean that in the best possible way. As Ella, Hathaway exudes the goofy, squeaky-clean charm of an early Natalie Wood, or a Margaret O'Brien. She's no heavyweight in the acting department, but her adorable, old-fashioned earnestness is a welcome tonic to the rampant irony and "whatever" 'tude of today's young Hollywood. Even the film's special effects feel charmingly antiquated. When humans and giants appear on screen together, for example, it never totally convinces, in the way of a cheesy, 1970s TV show. And the not-quite-lavish musical production number that closes the film looks like something straight out of Bollywood.

Somehow, however, such technical hokeyness feels right for the project, which in its espousal of tolerance for others and personal freedom, is as corny as Kansas, or at least Frank Capra.

"Ella Enchanted" may not look slick, but in its innocence, sweet heart and abundant wit, it has more going for it, by my accounting, than a dozen more expensive-looking films.