A Cinderella Story Review

A Cinderella Story
A modern retelling of the Cinderella story, with Hilary Duff as the downtrodden heroine who gets the chance to sneak off to the prom and dance with the handsome jock.

by Anna Smith |
Published on
Release Date:

20 Aug 2004

Running Time:

95 minutes

Certificate:

PG

Original Title:

A Cinderella Story

While Mean Girls proved there's life left in the teen comedy and Shrek in the contemporary fairy tale, this proves just how carelessly a hybrid can be slung out and still, somehow, please a portion of its adolescent audience.

Sam (Hilary Duff) slaves for her wicked stepmother (and minging step-siblings, natch, what with this being an update of the Cinderella myth. Clue's in the title, folks) while dreaming of her anonymous cyber soulmate. At a fancy dress party rendezvous, he's revealed to be school hunk Austin (Chad Michael Murray) - swoon! - but he doesn't recognise the eye-masked beauty as lowly diner worker Sam. What will happen if he finds out? Will he use the mobile phone (read: glass slipper) she left behind to track her down? No, that would be too easy. So would making humorous use of the 'ugly' sisters.

This is simple, lazy storytelling rendered merely functional by appealing leads and the eternal lure of romantic fantasy.

A charmless affair, updating a classic tale with nary a hint of wit or genuine style. In the teen queen stakes, Lindsay Lohan owns Hilary Duff's ass, like, sooooo totally it's not even funny.
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