Selena Gomez — Another Cinderella Story- Movie Review (2008 film)
Plot
Everyone knows the basic plot of a Cinderella movie. This is the modern adaptation with Selena Gomez (but not with Disney). Cinderella is Mary Santiago (Selena Gomez) a high school student who has a real passion for dancing. Jane Lynch plays Dominique Blatt, the wicked stepmother character. Lynch plays a similar role in the hit TV show Glee as the evil cheer squad coach Sue Sylvester. Britt and Bree (Emily Perkins and Katharine Isabelle) plays the role of wicked step sisters. Natalia (Nicole LaPlaca) is the wicked witch character who plays as a popular mean girl. The prince charming is Joey Parker (Andrew Seeley) who is a big celebrity and returns to school to finish his senior year. A Zune music player replace the glass slippers. For all the youngsters out there, the Zune is like the answer of Microsoft to the Apple iPod which was quite popular at that time.
The Cinderella Cliche
I’m sure you’ve all seen hundreds of Cinderella adaptations from TV show episodes, movies, plays, books, cartoons, and just about anywhere. Another Cinderella Story made real effort adding elements to make the film not as cliche’ as expected. They did a pretty good job!
Wicked Step-Family
Wicked stepmother Dominique is not really that evil. Jane Lynch’s Sue Sylvester character in Glee is a far darker version of this role. In the movie, she was just annoying and dumb. Her most wicked moment was attempting to deny Mary’s scholarship from a big theatre college, her life dream. She was told the college board both Mary’s legs were broken. Of course the school board representative eventually found out she was lying. The step-sisters were struggling to be wicked but they were just funny. They played comic relief characters. Mary is not a bit intimidated when Britt and Bree are trying to threaten her.
Cinderella & Prince Charming
The best performances were Selena Gomez and Andrew Seeley (Cinderella and the Prince). It is better than most teen dramas and is not too silly like High School Musical or Glee.
Mary Santiago never acted as an underdog to her step-family. There were some scenes were she did chores; however, it’s not like she’s afraid of them. This is not the self-pity melodramatic character that Cinderella is. Selena Gomez adds a unique charisma to any character she portrays, including this one. Andrew Seeley portraying a campus jock role is good. In this movie, he is talented and confident but also very humble. It felt like he deserved his popularity. When I say his talented, he really is. Watch his song and dance number (with Selena) in the last act, they were both phenomenal.
G-Jays Verdict
Another Cinderella Story is the most entertaining Cinderella themed movie I’ve ever seen. The problem is I don’t think this movie was marketed well. Creating some hype could have made this a box office success, not just a straight to DVD sensation. Overall, it is a good movie and I recommend it for everyone to see. You can say this movie is an underground hit teen movie.
Jays Ratings — 75%
Rotten Tomatoes — No Score
Metacritic — 25
IMDB — 5.8 out of 10
Financials — no info available
Jays Geronca is a dancer, film and tv critic, podcaster, and fiction writer. You can follow him at:
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