Directed by Andy Tennant
Drew Barrymore, Dougray Scott
Danielle: You are the only mother I have ever known. Was there ever a time, even in its smallest measurement, that you loved me at all?
Rodmilla: How can anyone love a pebble in their shoe?
Cinderella’s evil stepmother has never been more human than in this satisfying and feminist retelling of Perrault’s fairy tale. In this version, Cinderella is no lovely victim waiting to be rescued by her handsome prince. She’s Danielle de Barbarac, played with round-faced heartiness by Drew Barrymore, and consigned to servant status by her stepmother, Anjelica Huston’s Rodmilla de Ghent. The setting is 16th-century France, or its photogenic equivalent, Prince Charming is named Henry and played with humor and grace by Dougray Scott, and Leonardo Da Vinci drops in (with the Mona Lisa) to serve as a not-so-supernatural fairy godmother. Ever After folds in just enough realism and history to make it believable as the true story behind the legend of Cinderella, with much of that due to Huston’s sometimes comic, sometimes poignant performance as the vindictive, unhappy Rodmilla.
CinemaLit Films
