Enchanted is one of my favorite five movies of the year, and possibly of all time. On the surface, it’s a quirky story of a cartoon princess who is banished to the real mean streets of New York, with a tongue-in-cheek look at what happens when you mix fairy tale and reality.
But the nuanced performances of Amy Adams and Patrick Dempsey, along with a brilliant storyline, turn this into a deeply real exploration of the nature of true love and happily ever after.
I’m a new fan of Amy Adams after seeing this star-making performance. Adams plays Princess Giselle, who falls in love with Prince Edward (James Marsden) and they are to be wed the next morning in the fictional land of Andalasia. But the evil Queen Narissa (Susan Sarandon) isn’t quite ready to turn over her crown, so she pushes Giselle into a magic well to send her to a place “where there is no happily ever after” – New York City.
In Act One, Princess Giselle runs into several mishaps in New York and ends up soaking wet, perched on a billboard for Palace Casino, which she mistakenly believes is the Prince’s castle. She falls off the billboard, but luckily single dad and divorce lawyer Robert Philip (Patrick Dempsey) catches her. He takes her back to his nearby apartment only to dry off and to use the phone, but his cynical heart lets in a little of Giselle’s radiance and, when she falls asleep on the couch, he lets her stay the night. The next morning, the cynical Robert tries to get Giselle onto a plane or bus back home, and Giselle continues to spread her Disney-Princess spunk. This climaxes in a musical number in Central Park – “That’s How You Know”.
In Act Two, Princess Giselle is chased by Prince Edward who has bravely jumped into the well and is looking to save her, and one of the Queen’s minions, looking to poison her and finish her off for good. There are a number of silly sequences involving attempted poisoning, which are thwarted by Giselle’s best friend, a chipmunk named Pip. Prince Edward finds the Princess before the minion does and Act Two ends with Edward and Giselle leaving together to return to Andalasia, while the now smitten Robert looks on heart-broken.
In Act Three, the evil Queen comes to New York herself to finish the job. This all comes to a climax at a ball, where Robert and his girlfriend, Nancy, are spending the evening, and Princess Giselle coaxes Prince Edward to attend as their final adventure before leaving New York. The two couples meet just as the master of ceremonies announces that it’s time for the King and Queen Waltz, where a man asks a woman other than his date to dance. Edward asks Nancy leaving Robert and Giselle standing awkwardly. Robert pauses, Princess Giselle blushes. Robert asks her to dance and Princess Giselle demures.
The dance scene is remarkable and triumphant, due to the nuanced and restrained performances of Dempsey and Adams, aided by breathtaking camera work. They begin with restrained faces, which slowly thaw into longing as Robert begins to sing aloud with the words of the song “So Close”, which crescendos into enthusiastic and uninhibited twirls and openly adoring gazes as their true feelings cannot be held inside any longer. Watch the video.
Sadly, the dance is aborted when Nancy crossly cuts back in and Edward and Giselle leave the dance floor. Robert and Nancy resume dancing woodenly. Just then, the Queen arrives with fatal magic to eliminate Giselle once and for all. I don’t want to spoil the ending, but I will say that it ends with true love’s kiss.
The reviews on Rotten Tomatoes are very good with 92% of reviewers giving it a positive rating. But for me, I thought this was worthy of an Oscar award. I found much deeper meaning in this film’s quirky contrast of fairy tale and reality: important messages about true love and happily ever after.
1. Who saves who? In fairy tales, the prince in shining armor saves the princess. But in real life, the prince and the princess actually save each other. While damsels may be in distress, princes are in distress too. In Enchanted, Robert starts out saving Princess Giselle on a wet and rainy night. But Giselle saves Robert from finishing his life with a cold and cynical heart that doesn’t believe in true love. In real life, princes need rescuing too.
2. Happily ever after. In fairy tales, happily ever after just happens. In real life, there are conflicts and barriers to overcome. But facing those challenges together is the only way to be happy forever after. In Enchanted, Giselle and Robert must both face the evil Queen’s black magic before they can be together. To not face the danger would mean never living happily ever after. In real life, you can’t have happily ever after without facing some tough times and re-committing yourself to each other. Happily ever after is earned.
3. Finding your true love. In fairy tales, the roles are clear: the princess is lovely and pure but the victim of an evil oppressor. The prince is handsome, noble and brave and he saves the damsel. Then they get married and live happily ever after. But in Enchanted, that fairy tale ending blinds Giselle to the real possibilities around her. Although Edward and Giselle fit the molds, they are not right for each other. True love is discovered in the most unlikely places and people. In real life, true love is messy and unpredictable. You just have to follow your heart, don’t expect things to be predictable. The person you fall in love with may be much older or younger than you, much richer or poorer, a different nationality, have different moral values. None of that matters. When you love, really love, you are connecting on a much deeper level than your social or ethnic circumstances.
I watched this movie feeling I was not watching kitschy entertainment, but an important message about the complex meaning of happiness and true love’s kiss. And I came away refreshed, knowing that life is not a fairy tale. It’s so much better.
