Penelope – 2006

I remember seeing the trailer for Penelope at the movies and wanting to see it, but then I forgot about it and never pursued it.  This morning, it’s free On Demand, so I’m watching.  Why not?

It’s amazing to me that Christina Ricci can make a pig nose look cute.

Hey it’s Owen from Torchwood playing a newspaper editor.

As I watch this I’m wondering if it’s a film I should get my 9 year-old niece to watch.  I’m big on the beauty is in the eye of the beholder stuff.  This is a little slow for me but it seems good for children.

Although I have to admit that James McEvoy is adorable even if he’s a degenerate gambler.  And even though I’m pretty sure I already figured out he isn’t a blue blood, the movie is starting to grow on me.

So she’s smart and funny and talented and her only shortcoming is the pig snout and without having seen her, James McEvoy is falling for her.  I totally want my niece to see this.

Licking as a form of self-defense…this was written for 9 year-olds!

The parents, matchmaker and butler watching him woo her is a little too reality tv-ish for me.  But Penelope coming out to help him play piano, and looking gorgeous, is really sweet.

Why do the two leads in this film have such dark circles under their eyes?

Sad to see her begging him to marry her.  But good Lord he’s beautiful.

And she was right, he is a piano player.  Aw… and now she’s escaping the mother.  Yay, Penelope!

Walking through the streets with her nose covered by a scarf, you can really see how gorgeous her eyes are.

I know the mother thinks she’s doing well but I can’t stand her.  Nothing like reinforcing to  your daughter that there is something wrong with her.

Girl was smart enough to steal her mother’s credit card so she could stay in a hotel.  Good on you, kid.

James McEvoy finally realizes he’s spending too much time gambling.  A little convenient but okay.

A financial reward for a photo of Penelope (and a hideous drawing of her in the newspaper, making her look like a monster instead of a pig).

I think more could have been done with her trying to get used to the world where she hasn’t been a part of her entire life…fish out of water stuff…but still, cutely done.

Except now her parents traced her by the credit card and she has no money to live on….but there’s that reward money…

Peter Dinklage is really underrated as an actor.  That’s all.  And is there supposed to be something we’re reading into his being a little person going after someone folks think is a freak?  (He seriously responds to her, “Nobody said a freak” to her when she calls herself that.)

Now he doesn’t want to expose her because she sells him the picture and he realizes she’s not a fanged monster.  And now we kind of like him.

But we like James McEvoy more because he just returned half the money he got from Peter Dinklage to help expose Penelope.  Gaw.

Hey it’s Reese Witherspoon!  The movies almost over and there she is.  It’s hard to buy her as hard-edged but she’s still cute.

Drunk Penelope meets Reese.  But, wait, it’s Russell Brand!

Why are some of the actors using their real accents and some not?  Russell Brand gets to use his accent but James McEvoy has to hide his?  Unfair.

There could be a whole different movie with Witherspoon and Ricci.  Good chemistry there.

And we get a musical montage to show both the budding relationship between Reese and Christina as well as Penelope getting into real life.

Well now she doesn’t have to hide her face.  Passes out in the bar and gets outed and now she’s hanging out unhidden with Reese Witherspoon and taking photos with the mayor.  Idiot rich boy says she belongs in a cage even though the public has fallen in love with her.  Daddy is going to make him marry her.

Ooh…but there’s James McEvoy….”You look great; really happy”.  I heart him.

Okay the mother is horrid.  “You’re just a talking pig to those people.  A talking pig.”  It’s hard to hate Catherine O’Hara but she’s a terrible person in this film.

Ugh, Penelope gets engaged to the idiot.  Peter Dinklage isn’t happy.

And here is where we find out that James McEvoy isn’t the guy Peter Dinklage thought he was.  He mistakenly thought James McEvoy was a blue blood on the skids and finds out he wasn’t at all.

Penelope’s parents and rich idiot’s parents go to the theater with the newlyweds and meet up with James McEvoy.  Fight in the mens room!!!!  Dammit, no fight.  I hate idiot rich boy.

I seriously think I’m in love with James McEvoy.

I love that Peter Dinklage’s character isn’t really a jerk.  I love that he wants Penelope and James McEvoy to be happy.  I think I have something in my eye.

Reese Witherspoon and the bartender.  So cutesy.  Don’t hate Reese in this.

Why is the matchmaker still there?  Technically she didn’t get them together.  Although now she’s trying to talk the mother into James McEvoy being the right one for Penelope.

Even on her wedding day the mother can’t tell her she looks beautiful.  “You don’t look stupid.”  Thanks, Ma.

Don’t marry him, Penelope, he’s gross.  James McEvoy is waiting for you!

Christina Ricci is so adorable, I can’t stand it.  Of course, I hear her voice and I still hear Wednesday Addams.

“I like myself the way I am!”….hot shit, she broke the curse herself!  I love this story!!

After watching her with the pig snout all this time she almost looks weird with the real nose.

I was thinking the same thing, mom, YOU could have broken the curse too.  Both parents could have.  Asses.

And now the mother wants to give her a nose job.  Butler just quit and silenced the mom permanently!…he was really the old lady who put the curse on the family in the beginning.  Too easy.

Aw, she’s a teacher!  And on Halloween all the girls are going as Penelope.  🙁

The matchmaker tells Penelope who James McEvoy is.  This is too sweet.  And Penelope wears a Penelope mask to see James McEvoy and Reese Witherspoon says it’s “great to see the old you!”.  Okay, so she’s a good character.

He’s packing up and leaving town so he won’t be tempted to gamble.

Oh, he doesn’t know Penelope is Penelope because she’s wearing a Penelope mask…this is so cute.

Aw, he knew it was her…and he’s kissing her with the mask on.  I think I love him….he still thinks she’s cursed.

I really need to dust in here.

“It’s not the power of the curse, it’s the power you give the curse”

Peter Dinklage, with an opportunity to get a shot of the “missing” Penelope, decides to let go and let them go on with their lives.  I love this movie.  How is it that this movie didn’t get more publicity?

James McEvoy…I think I love you.

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