Review: Penelope | Film.

Released: 2006
Watched: 04/01/14, E4.

Basic Storyline: After her daughter's unfortunate death a witch curses the 'blue-blooded' Wilhern family. The curse states that the next female born into the family will have a face that resembles a pig's face, and the curse will only be lifted -to give her a normal, human face- once she has been fully accepted by "one of her own kind." 

After numerous generations of only male offspring, Penelope is born. True to the curse she is born with the ears and nose of a pig, making her parents -particularly her mother- keen to protect her from the outside world and the media desperate to get a picture of Penelope. It is these two things that lead on to the two main storylines within the film.

Penelope, played by Christina Ricci.

The first is Mrs. Wilhern's quest to find her daughter a 'blue-blooded' husband in order to break the curse and give her daughter a more human face. Although Penelope's mother means well, she often comes across as quite harsh and selfish, and a lot of the time it seems like she cares more about lifting the curse than she does about her daughter.

The second main storyline revolves around a reporter (Lemon) and an ex-suitor's (Edward Vanderman) mission to obtain a picture of Penelope to show the world. It is an unlikely pairing and they both have very different reasons for having their hearts set on obtaining Penelope's photograph. 

Lemon wants the photograph to heal his bruised ego and make up for the loss of his eye; both of which were a result of being attacked by Mrs. Wilhern, when he was found hiding in the Wilhern household trying to get a picture of Penelope after she was born. Alternately, Edward wants to get and publish a picture of Penelope in order to restore his reputation, after he was deemed to be crazy when he ran to the police after first seeing Penelope face-to-face and claimed he had just seen a fanged and pig-faced monster.

Johnny (a.k.a. Max impersonator), played by James McAvoy.

The two storeylines are intertwined with the arrival of Max, a 'blue-blood' who had gambled away most of his inheritance and was hired by Lemon and Edward to act as a potential suitor and in the process of courting Penelope get a picture of her for them to publish. What they didn't know however is that they had actually hired a man named Johnny that they had accidentally assumed was Max, even though at first Johnny even told them they had the wrong man.

After a few twists and turns in the plot Penelope decides that she needs to see the outside world and as a result runs away into the city disguising herself by wrapping a scarf around the lower half of her face (pictured nearer the beginning of this post). She appears to thoroughly enjoy her time in the city -keeping her parents up to date on her adventures by sending them postcards- and befriends a woman named Annie, who for the most part acts as her tour guide. 

There's more to the story but I feel like this is a good place to leave it as I don't want to ruin the ending for any of you that decide to go away and watch it. :)

Annie, played by Reece Witherspoon.

My Thoughts/Opinions: I personally really enjoyed the film overall -Penelope's mother did annoy me a little from time to time- and would definitely watch it again. I particularly liked the fact the Penelope had the bravery to run away and experience the outside world for herself. I also liked how accepting the friends she made were when they discovered what she really looked like under the scarf; and of course I loved the happy ending -particularly the scene towards the end were Penelope goes to find Johnny and they are reunited.

Lemon, played by Peter Dinklage.

If you've not seen this film before I suggest you watch it at some point in the future. When the film first came out I saw the trailer for it a few times and it didn't really appeal to me. But I'm glad that one day, years later, I was feeling too lazy to change the channel and ended up watching it.

If you have seen this film before, what are your thoughts on it?

-Hannah.