Some Enchanted Evening

The other day my hairdresser asked if I had seen any good movies lately. I looked at her quizzically. "There haven't been any good movies in about two years," I responded, presuming that everyone was aware of the movie drought. But this weekend, I saw a pretty good movie, Enchanted. Yes, it's a Disney movie, and no, I do not care for animation, save for The Simpsons and the Toy Story movies. But the key is that it is only partially animated--about the first 10-15 minutes. Then the live action begins and Disney pokes fun at itself, juxtaposing fairy tale life against modern life.

The truly delightful part of Enchanted is Amy Adams. She is not only breathtaking onscreen (in a non-Elaine Benes way), she's also a terrific actress. If you haven't seen Junebug, you should, if only for her performance. She was nominated for an Oscar for that movie. The minute she came onscreen in Enchanted, I couldn't imagine anyone else playing the part of Gisele, a wannabe princess. "McDreamy" (Patrick Dempsey) plays her modern-day prince, but his good looks and caustic delivery pale against Amy, who seems to believe she is a Disney character. The end of the film goes a little over the top, with my least favorite device, a CGI monster, making an appearance. Guess they had to throw in something for the boys.

Enchanted made me laugh out loud. And the scenery and costumes were oh so Disneyesque. This is the type of holiday film I'm interested in. I know that studios must get their serious movies into theaters if they want to make the Oscar deadline, but who wants to see movies like Grace is Gone, or Gone Baby, Gone at Christmastime? We don't want to think about children being kidnapped or killed, or the war in Iraq. We see that every day on the news. I still shudder when I think about seeing Titanic on Christmas day in 1997. Sure, we knew it didn't end well, but it was so long and so somber. I also have bad memories of seeing Children of Men just after Christmas last year. I was depressed for two days after that. Christmastime is turbulent enough, with the shopping, the relatives, and the cooking. Why not give the people some hope and fun? We want lighthearted fare at Christmas, like Fred Claus, which incidentally, wasn't too bad either.