Penelope

There are no surprises as to what happens next, but it’s hard not to enjoy the ride.

Penelope is a delightfully fractured fairy tale that manages a trick many so-called "family-friendly" movies fail to do: appeal to kids and adults without offending or condescending to either group.

Christina Ricci hasn't been this winning since she arrived on the scene as Winona Ryder's little sister in Mermaids.

Director Mark Palansky finds a quiet tone to present this engaging script by Leslie Caveny. That means the moral of this story (and all good fairy tales have a moral) is delivered with a light embrace instead of an emotional slap.

The movie's major flaw is a sort of stylistic carelessness.

Aimed at tweenage girls and mushy romantics of all age and stripe, Penelope has a quick gait and a nice comic tone.

Penelope is like an extended bedtime story for tweens and up. It's very slight, but it's puffed up with a quirky cast, London locales and a production design that allows the film to cast a fairy-tale spell.

To the filmmakers' credit, the moral comes through loud and clear, and those in the audience who are feeling self-conscious about their appearances may leave feeling temporarily better.

Penelope, a sweetly offbeat fairy tale from director Mark Palansky and screenwriter Leslie Caveny, has been sitting on the shelf since its completion in 2006, and for the life of me I can't imagine why.

If all of Penelope were as good as the first five minutes, we'd have a classic on our hands.

While Penelope follows a pretty standard formula, it’s different enough to help us slow down and realize that things aren’t always what they seem -- even in fairy tales.

While not a classic on the level of Tim Burton's Edward Scissorhands, this fabulist fable about a privileged young woman born under a bizarre family curse -- she has a pig's snout for a nose -- is a sweet, unassuming surprise.

The movie is a gamble, and honestly I doubt I'd have gone if it hadn't been assigned to me. While by no means flawless, in these days of endless formula, it was a sweet surprise.

There are some flat moments, to be sure, and Mark Palansky's direction can be a bit unsteady and awkward, but he doesn't wallow in the eccentricities or the modestly self-empowering moral.

There is an underlying sweetness to Penelope, a root-for-her vibe that's only slightly diluted by the predictable story.

Penelope largely works thanks to the commitment of its cast to take the darkly comic material as seriously as they do.

A mid-movie twist is as predictable as it gets, and the message isn't as brave as it could be -- let's just say metaphorical transformations can be more empowering than literal ones.

This half-baked fairy tale always seems to be on the verge of becoming charming but despite a good cast it never quite succeeds.

Penelope is a charming-enough tale about learning to accept and love one's self, whether you have a pig's snout or not.

The movie is cute in a fairy-tale sort of way that is reminiscent of both the first Shrek movie and the old standard Beauty and the Beast.

Reese Witherspoon, whose production company made Penelope, contributes an inflated cameo that feels forced.

Penelope looks like a child's fairy tale but contains grownup themes. The contrast isn't always successful, but viewers may not mind.

Penelope never works up much comic steam. Visually, it sure tries: Everything in first-time director Mark Palansky's picture is outsized, hyperbolic, Tim Burton-y.

In this sweet but very slight modern-day fairy tale, a plucky Christina Ricci seeks out a husband who believes beauty is in the eye of the beholder.

Penelope earns its fairy-tale stripes not through its portrayal of a princess-like central character and her travails but by imagining a world that's far more genial and good-hearted than the real one.

A modern-day fairy tale about a young woman who learns the value of self-acceptance, Penelope is the sort of movie that's easy to like.

Penelope isn't going to shake up the movie landscape anytime soon, but its endearing theme is magical enough to warrant some attention from moviegoers.

A grim fairy tale at times, Penelope eventually lands in crowd-pleaser territory.

Penelope is an odd concoction -- a witch's gentle brew of modern-day fairy tale, feather-light romance and slapstick comedy. It's not a knockout potion, but it goes down smoothly and is harmless enough to serve to the kids.

A pleasant but slightly bland Christina Ricci stars in a contemporary fairy tale about overcoming a curse and accepting oneself. But that ground has been covered more entertainingly by the Shrek franchise.

Penelope gets by mostly on winsome charm; where the balance doesn't really work, it tries to tip the scales with a shrug and a smile.

Although it's clearly going for a whimsically dark, Edward Scissorhands vibe, it's a predictable feel-good movie through and through.

Penelope has the bold earmarks of a revisionist statement but the lean premise of a bedtime story and the flabby midsection of a lazy spoof.

Its themes of physical conformity will probably resonate most deeply with young women, male moviegoers who give it a chance may be pleasantly surprised.

Penelope seems like a fairly misguided and flimsy premise, so the fact that it works at all is an achievement in itself.

Penelope offers is a terrific cast willing to emphasize the charming, a decent fake nose and a message that any parent would love to pass on to a child -- love yourself and the world will love you back.

The movie lacks the sureness and lucidity of even a fractured fairy tale.

Penelope isn't exactly a sow's ear, thanks to the quality cast, but the hog-tied tale still doesn't produce a silk purse.

There are usually good reasons why a movie gets shelved for more than a year, however well-acted it may be and however well-meaning its message. Many are on view in Penelope.

Penelope isn’t offensive or crude, and its heart is in the right place. Problem is, it isn’t much of anything else.

There's no real rigor or craft applied to this story; just mood, tone, neo-gothic imagery and frantic attitude. If only Penelope knew what it truly wished to be and how to go about it.

Director Palansky and screenwriter Leslie Caveny seem to have many of the right ingredients for creating something beguiling, but the film is, finally, surprisingly pedestrian.

Mark Palansky goes for Tim Burton-by-Jean-Pierre Jeunot whimsicality with Penelope, a storybook fable that never overplays its cutesiness but also fails to figure out what it wants to be.

The moral to this story is pretty obvious and the happy ending is inevitable.

Penelope isn’t a bad movie. It isn’t a particularly good one, either.

There are probably worse things Christina Ricci could be doing in a movie than running around with a pig's snout.

Basically a female version of Edward Scissorhands, the film premiered at the 2006 Toronto Film Festival and was unceremoniously dumped by its original distributors before its planned release last year.

Director Mark Palansky wishes he was Tim Burton. So will you, because even with producer Reese Witherspoon showing up in a cameo, Penelope is dead on arrival.

Crushingly winsome, Penelope aims to be a magical modern romance, but there's no enchantment.

Is there anything more dull than an ineptly cynical fairy tale?