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New Twist to an Old Classic: A Cinderella Story
"It managed to be no more or less predictable or clichéd than any other teen flick."
By Chelsea Vargas
What stuck me most about the new teen-flick, A Cinderella Story, is just how very “run of the mill” it is. It managed to be no more or less predictable or clichéd than any other teen flick. All the key elements of a teen movie are present: pretty girl, lovable boy sidekick, popular boy who turns out to be sensitive and evil popular girl determined to bring the heroine down.
As one can gather from the name, the movie is a modern-day remake of the classic Cinderella fairy tale. Instead of being set far, far away, it’s set in drought-afflicted San Fernando Valley. The wicked stepmother, Fiona, played by Jennifer Coolidge from Legally Blonde and Best in Show, helps illustrate just how superficial and surgically altered the culture of the valley is. Hillary Duff plays Sam Montgomery, our little Cinderella who escapes the reality of her evil stepfamily life by chatting online with a mystery boy she met in a chat room. The twist comes when Sam finds out the internet boy of her dreams is the most popular boy in school, Austin Ames, played by Chad Michael Murray. What will poor Sam do now that she’s discovered Mr. Hottie Quarterback is the object of her affection? She worries that revealing her true identity will scare him away. Of course, antics ensue.
One of the major flaws I find with the teen movie genre as a whole is the complete loss of subtlety. These movies always portray high school as a harsh, dog-eat-dog world. There’s no denying how harsh the high school experience can be. But, I at least have found the cruelties of high school to be a lot more subtle than they are ever portrayed in these movies – and that’s what makes high school so hard.
Things aren’t as simple as a jock hiding a sensitive side or a single arch-nemesis determined to bring you down. There are more adjectives to describe people than just “nice” or “mean.” Friends, no matter how good they are, aren’t there 100% of the time. And, rarely is there a single day, or even a single week, where you solve all your problems, conquer your insecurities and land yourself the perfect boyfriend. Nothing is that simple, and that’s what makes the whole thing worth going through - otherwise it would be all too predictable.
Despite all the flaws so common to teen movies, A Cinderella Story means well. As always, the movie has a clearly stated message about being true to who you are and standing up for what you believe in; and seems to genuinely mean it. And, as always, it proves to be a little challenging for our heroine to really take the message to heart. Does she, in the end triumph? Take a wild guess. Or hey, go see the movie; just don’t expect it to be groundbreaking. Expect it to be the same old same old.
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