MOVIE REVIEW - Penelope

I don't know about you but I feel the art of making real family movies is a dying craft. Cartoons and snappy animated flicks have taken their place. Enter Penelope! This is the new Christina Ricci, James MacAvoy and Reese Witherspoon flick.

The story is simple and complicated at the same time. Penelope (Ricci) is born with a family curse from generations back with a pigs nose and ears. Her mother goes to great lengths to shield her from the press, and the world in general. Mom also hires matchmakers to court Penelope and get her married so the curse can be broken. There are numerous side plots too here, too many to mention and they're not real important anyway for the sake of review.

Let's just say this first. There is nothing wrong with Penelope! Both in character and as a movie. This is a real nice little family movie that doesn't have a bunch of cartoon characters singing a lot of bad songs. It isn't silly or juvenile either. You can load up the whole young family here and go to a real movie, starring real people, and see a fairy tale type story and have a great time doing it. This movie was produced by Reece Witherspoon as well. I'm thinking she wanted to make a movie her young kids could enjoy, and she's done it.

Penelope too has a nice message. Being excepting of others and ourselves is an important thing in this world. The "beauty is only skin deep" thing has been told time after time in movies, but it never really gets old. There are certainly worse things for our young kids today to see. And you can even strike up a conversation with them afterwards about the lesson over ice cream.

I always feel that movies like Penelope have to be reviewed for the kind of movie it is, and what the intent was. It drives me nuts to hear "big time critics" trashing flicks like this because it doesn't make a "statement" or if they are not "great cinema." Give me a break! I am not the target audience for Penelope and I rather enjoyed it. Penelope works for what it is. A family movie with a heart and soul and no special effects. A refreshing change in today's computer generated world. It's a nice night out with the family at the movies.