Away from her Naturellement

Away from her

Naturellement, we then flash back to this bygone era of once upon a time to learn how the story really went down. Which is, by and large, the Disney version of the tale, only sans-magic and with the addition of the spunky, newfangled idea that a real princess doesnt need saving. Dont worry, she still gets to fall in syrupy, lovey-dovey love with away from her long locked man of her dreams. Its just her choice this time around. After her doting father dies of a massive coronary, Danielle grows up as a servant to her icy stepmother Rodmilla Anjelica Houston and two step sisters, brunette overeater Jacqueline Melanie Lynskey and svelte Marguerite Megan Dodds, an uppity blond intent on winning the hand of Prince Henry Dougray Scott, a rogue royal who cant stand the courtly life hes supposed to lead. Henry is also faced with an ultimatum from his portly father, King Francis Timothy Westhe has five days to announce a marriage to the girl of his choice, or his father will choose for him. When Danielle poses as a courtesan to free a servant her stepmother sold into slavery, she inadvertently draws Henrys attention, and the two fall secretlyinevitablyinexorablyin love. The trouble, of course, is two-fold: Henry doesnt know that Danielle is but a lowly peasant, and Rodmilla, who will do just about anything to make her own daughter Marguerite the next queen of France, hates her with a spitefully irrational passion. The whole charade is revealed at a swanky royal ball, where Danielle shows up wearing some oh-so-1990s glittery makeupnot to mention a pair of angel wings made by, no kidding, Leonardo di Vinci Patrick Godfrey, who serves as a kind of surrogate fairy godmotheronly to be publicly disgraced by her stone cold bi-otch of a step-mum. She flees the scene, leaving behind that iconic glass slipper, but you know how these stories always endwith a chaste kiss between reunited lovers. Where Ever After differs from previous retellings of the age-old story is that Danielle is presented as a smart, capable, dignified woman who finds herself before she finds a prince. She certainly doesnt need rescued. Even when Rodmilla pawns her off to a lascivious-looking businessman who speaks in double entendres and seems intent on, uh, plowing her field, Danielle takes charge of the situation, holds a dagger to the pervs jugular, and forcibly takes back her freedom. If anything, she rescues the prince, helping him to see beyond his prejudices and inspiring him to devote his life to learning. This kind of female empowerment is greatand much needed in an industry where an inordinate away from her of heroes are menbut it doesnt necessarily elevate Ever After above the powder-puff promenade of other fairytale romance films. In most other respects, its a rather conventionalenjoyable, but certainly not groundbreakingbit of storytelling aimed squarely at teenaged girls. Im just playing devils advocate, though. The film does have its charms, as evidenced by the fact away from her it still gets regular rotation inamongst other places, Im surethe dorm rooms of a certain sub-set of clean-cut, conservative college girls. Dont ask me how I know this. Only a truly cold, cynical soul would fail to warm to the relationship that develops between Danielle and Henryas goofy and sentimental as it most of the timeand theres a keen satisfaction in seeing Rodmilla and Marguerite get their just deserts. Anjelica Houston and Megan Dodds are so good at being ingratiating to their bettersand outright horrible to everyone elsethat you wish Drew Barrymore would just suckerpunch the both of them in the mouth. But our heroine plays it cool. This was Barrymores first real starring role, and she works bubbly wonders with it. Ever After arrives on Blu-ray with a 1080p/AVC-encoded transfer that looksto melike it was prepared from an old master intended for DVD. Dont get me wrong, this is definitely a high definition disc, it just shows DVD-like attributes, including some fairly strong edge enhancement, occasionally noticeable compression artifacts, and colors that seem slightly oversaturated at times. Clarity is adequaterevealing detail in the period costuming and the actors facesbut you can tell that some effort has been made to sharpen the image after it was transferred, resulting in mild haloing on certain hard outlines. Likewise, color seems boosted at timesmaking skin tones overly ruddybut not to the point of distraction. On the plus side, black levels are sufficiently deep and the grain structure of the 35mm image is left largely intact, although there are some specks on the print. I get the sense that the film could definitely look better with a proper, more up-to-date transfer. I have no substantial complaints, however, about Ever After s DTS-HD Master Audio 1 surround track, which carries the films limited sonic requirements well.