How could it hurt you when it looks so good

Amy Adams (Giselle, of course you remember her), is pure old Hollywood glamour on Vanity Fair's november issue. Love the Veronica Lake's locks.

When magic takes place in the real world

Enchanted (2007) - The first time I heard of this film I thought it would be nothing but a very silly and predictable story. Its end is indeed expected and some scenes are slightly corny, but these small "flaws" can't ruin it in any terms, on the contrary, it only helps to keep the smile on the face of each person in the audience. The songs are not as memorable as Disney's most classic songs, but that's not a problem either, as the lead character, Giselle, is played by Amy Adams in one of the most outstanding female performances of the year. The geniosity of the actress lies in the fact she was able to take the best out of a typical Disney princess, a character who could be easily turned into a cheap parody in the hands of the wrong performer. But as Adams said herself once:

"I think that I've always been attracted to characters who are positive and come from a very innocent place. I think there's a lot of room for discovery in these characters and that's something I always have fun playing."

Playing a sort of character so brilliantly isn't for many. People usually say that "difficult" and dramatic characters are the most challenging roles, and therefore, those that should be awarded when the actors do good. It isn't every day that comic roles are awarded or even remembered, even though making people laugh, especially in Amy's situation in this film, is harder than making them weep. At this point everyone must know what the film is about, but here I go... In an animated and typical Disney world called Andalasia, princess-to-be Giselle waits for a prince who will sing to her and share their true love's kiss. Her wishes come true (in a particular corny-on-purpose and therefore, funny scene), and they're already settled to marry eachother by the next day. The prince's stepmom (the always worth-watching Susan Sarandon) is the evil queen who will spoil the singing couple's happy end, sending Giselle to a world where there's no happily-ever-after, in order to keep prince Edward single and thus remain queen of Andalasia.

By this moment the film has changed from classic animation to the live-action in our contemporary days, more specifically, in NY York City (could you imagine a better place to tell such a story?) and Amy Adams' consternated facial expression in the right moment Giselle faces the big city in the middle of Times Square is a sort of early and very welcomed climax scene in the story. Giselle will feel finally safe after meeting the realistic, divorced, single parent and lawer Robert (Patrick Dempsey), who despite thinking she's nothing but a disturbed young woman, will take her into his apartment where she spends the night. That's where she will sing a happy working song, while cleaning up Robert's dirty and messy apartment with the help of the big city's "cute" little animals. Like the movie trailer says, there was never anything like this among all Disney films ever made. After a year of many disappointing and supposed-to-be entertaining films (Shrek 3, Pirates of the Caribbean 3, SpiderMan 3, etc etc..), the recycled Enchanted's fairy tale confirms itself as one of the best entertainment movies of 2007.

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I've received a Thinking Blogger Award from Aisha, who writes the blog Coloured Bleu. Copying and pasting: If you get tagged you have to write a post with links to 5 blogs that make you think and then you have to put a link to THIS post so people can find out where it all started. Finally, just in case you want (optional), you can display the 'Thinking Blogger Award' with a link to the post that you wrote in one of your sidebars. I pass down the award in no specific order to Denise from Síndrome de Estocolmo (who persuaded me to stop buying L'oreal and Nestle products, except for condensed milk, as there's no other kind here... and who shares all her thoughts and impressions while travelling abroad - the China posts were so great), Margie from Margie's Hideout (for writing constantly about political and cultural issues in a fun way), Morsi from Get Out of Babylon (this is a new blog I just knew very recently, but the post he wrote after someone left a message on his blog saying he stole the poem he wrote himself was pretty interesting), Cherry Blossom Girl (whose pictures are just enchanting and really tell a story through images - just check her Lost in Translation inspired pics in her recent trip to Japan) and Plain Jayne (for writing about Fashion while mixing it with different subjects, like Cinema and her own personal thoughts). I wonder what this award really means, but thanks a lot anyway, Aisha! ^^

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A little more of Enchanted: This is one of my favourite scenes in the movie, and one of the funniest scenes of the year. Pip, the chipmunk, unable to talk in the real world, uses pantomime in order to tell the truth about Nathaniel (Timothy Spall, very good) to the not very bright Prince Edward (James Marsden, also good). This is a great example of how visual effects can be used quite positively to improve storytelling, unlike what happened in some other film also released this year. Before seeing Enchanted, the whiskey drunker polar bear from The Golden Compass was my favourite computer generated character of the year, but now it's definitely Pip. *WARNING* This scene might contain SPOILERS.