Coming out of nowhere with a heavy women empowerment message in the late 90s, Ever After: A Cinderella Story takes a classic fairy tale known by all and added its own twists and changes to the source material to create a memorable, clever, fun picture that appeals to both boys and girls while still being recognizable as the classic fairy tale. In 16th century France, Danielle (played by Drew Barrymore) is forced to become the maid of her own household once her father tragically and mysteriously dies. She is raised by her stepmother, Baroness Rodmilla De Ghent (played by Anjelica Huston), who hates Danielle with great disdain after seeing Danielle’s father display a stronger affection towards his daughter than to herself.  Being much more tough and wild than ladies of her time period, Danielle doesn’t fit the mold of the typical medieval female. One day, she comes face to face with Prince Henry (played by Dougray Scott) who seems lost and confused about his position as a ruler and is also trying to battle the restrictions that are forced into his daily life. In disguise as a noblewoman, she and him start to bloom a romance, unaware that her stepmother has her own plans for the prince with her own daughters. Swords are clung, dresses are worn, and the whole thing results in a unique, but familiar adaption that still carries the small romantic atmosphere, but with much more of a sharper edge attached. Directed by Andy Tennant, despite being a romance story and featuring very little magical elements like the Disney version, Ever After is filled with interesting characters, fun spins on traditional formulas, clever writing, great acting, and plenty of action and adventure, but also a lot of romance and lovey dovey stuff for everyone to get into.

The film changes just enough aspects from the original story that it can be called its own unique entity, while still being the Cinderella story everyone knows and can connect with. The fun about this idea is that since the classic story has been one of the most retold folktales of all time (going as far back as between 7 BC and AD 23 Greece), it means that the framework is all that’s required to keep it recognizable, and that they are allowed to have a bit of fun with everything else to create their own story, which this film definitely does. The character’s motivations, initial set-ups and roles are still very much the same, but the changes come from their personalities, their actions, and the direction the story takes. Much more time is dedicated to building relationships between the characters, making the audience care for them more and keeping them invested throughout its entire length from both a romantic and just from a basic character perspective. The story adds a lot more meat to the overall plot, like a forced marriage, an evil mercenary and Cinderella being a lot more tough, which can feel contrived in areas, but in others fleshes out interesting aspects of the tale that have never been explored and allows its audience to judge for themselves how they like it. Most of them work very well and add more dimensions to the overall narrative. The ending however, while giving Cinderella a chance to show off her stronger side, is tagged on and draws out the film longer than necessary. Though the film is somewhat long and sometimes padded in places, it keeps the focus on the dilemmas of the characters and the connections that they build along the way. The fact that the film has a strong Feminist agenda within a story set within an evolving but still improving environment works better, not only because it never loses focus on making the characters interesting and entertaining first, but the contrast to it being set in medieval times just makes it more humorous.

Having already existing layouts for the characters, this film takes them in more fun avenues that not many if any of the other renditions of the story have done. Cinderella is strong and independent, but also is given a clear-cut personality; wild, crazy, slightly brutal, but also kind-hearted and intelligent. the prince is done pretty standard, but is still faithfully portrayed and he is likeable in his need to change and his confusion for his future, The Stepmother’s a lot of fun and entertainingly passive aggressive, but still also has her complex moments that make her more than just a one-note villain, and the side characters are very charming and fun to watch as well, deviating from the original source but creating their own roles that make for some fun spins (having Leonardo da Vinci acts as a somewhat Fairy Godmother role is pretty cool).  Characters in fairy tale settings have a way of acting that is very distinct from other films of the time, having a very over-the-top goofiness, but still genuine tone that enhances the environment that the film surrounds themselves in. The acting is very well done from everyone, particularly Drew Barrymore and Anjelica Huston, capturing the comedy and the drama almost flawlessly. Barrymore always feels engaged and focused on her role and gives the character a lot of fun energy, and Anjelica Huston makes the stepmother a very gracefully manipulative fun villain; one that still has a humanity in there but is crowded with too much hatred to make any of it come to the surface. The two main leads have good chemistry, everyone works well off each other, and the realistic approach doesn’t detract from the sillier aspects, adopting more of a historical fiction stance as opposed to a pantomime stance. Near the end, the main couple have a pointless falling out thanks to the lame ”liar reveal” cliche that is obviously going to be resolved, but it keeps it relatively short as to not drag out what is obviously a forced conflict. Also, the side character loses a bit of their importance after the last third, but it does at least keep the focus on the leads.

The writing is very clever in mixing the typical romance components of the genre and tale, with an overall adventurous action-oriented theme in a way that gives the film enough aspects from both sides to surprisingly make for a very interesting love story. It doesn’t feel very much like the time period its set in because of the constant push for equality and female rights but announces it to such a degree that it’s easy to accept it as a fairy tale with a grittier edge. Despite the more realistic tone with the darker atmosphere and removing a lot of the story’s mystical aspects, it’s still presented in a fantastical enough manner that makes it feel like something outside of regular history that gives a little more swagger and punch to something that would be play straight in any other story of its type. Considering that one of the head writers, Susannah Grant, would go on to write for the 2000 film, Erin Brockovich, which also had a slightly cinematic edge and featured a female lead with sass and bite, that along with her past experience working on rom-coms explains the personality of the story as well what was improved upon from the usual status-quo. The action is enjoyable; nothing overblown, but foreign to this kind of story and allows for much more variety in contrast to the romance. Despite the film’s heavier focus on fight scenes and drama, it still has the classic Cinderella appeal surrounding the fancy-looking dresses, the romance, and the pretty imagery. Though definitely not as prominent as the other versions, and the fact that every environment doesn’t have many striking colors, the costumes by Jenny Beavan are very nice to look at, having good designs that feel time-appropriate and are wonderfully colorful, and the cinematography by Andrew Dunn captures the nice pretty, emotional scenes, but also the darker more heavier scenes very well too. The music by George Fenton is perfectly enchanting, giving the film its own blend of fairy tale edge without going too far into the realms of annoyance.

For another rendition of the classic Cinderella story, Ever After: A Cinderella Story is one of the best. There’s been other rendition that might capture the original folktale stronger, and the 1950 Disney animated film may have a stronger grab on most audiences for its charming yet simplistic appeal, but this one knows what it wants to be, knows how to change itself to stand out, and much like the main character, proudly proclaim itself as unlike anything they’ve seen before. It’s smart and cool in places, it doesn’t waste much time and keeps the film’s pace reasonable, the writing is clever, the characters are interesting but also faithful, it has plenty of adventurous elements and fight scenes, but also a lot of romance and dress scenes to pander to both in the best way possible, and creating a film where a empowered female story within medieval times comes off as engaging and buyable. Many of the other renditions have had their own sets of flaws that hinder the experience for others, but this one seems to have the least in the overall product. It’s not perfect as it contains its own set of dumb cliches and dragged out ending which keep it from being a perfect film, but for what it is, it’s more than worth its missteps. Not a grand movie at first glance, but a pretty great film overall, it seems to be just the right fit.

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