Damageplan soul bleed Ever

Damageplan soul bleed

Ever After writer/director Andy Tennants retelling of the Cinderella storywas greeted upon its 1998 release with heaps of critical praise, mostly for its costume romance lushness, the buoyantly charismatic performance of its then-23-year-old star Drew Barrymore, and its vaguely feminist, the princess can save herself message. The question now, some 13 years later, is how well does the film hold up to scrutiny? Was all that acclaim just hot air from the Hollywood hype machine, or does Ever After have real lasting merit as a revisionist, girl-power fairy tale? I may get hate mail from legions of women who were, say, between 8 and 18 when the film debuted, but Im going to have to argue the former. Ever After is cute, a little pious, and fine for a feel-good evening damageplan soul bleed perhaps the ultimate pre-teen slumber party moviebut its not nearly the you go girl game changer that some writers made it out to be. Its more of a cotton candy filmfun, fluffy, and by the time youre finished with it, teeth-achingly sweet. You may think you know the Cinderella storythe pumpkin carriage, the friendly mice, the fairy godmotherbut Ever After wants to set the record straight. The film begins with the Brothers Grimm visiting an erudite old dame who claims that Cinderella was an actual person named Danielle Barrymore who lived in 16th century France. Naturellement, we then flash back to this bygone era of once upon a time to learn how the story really went down. Which is, by and large, the Disney version of the tale, only sans-magic and with the addition of the spunky, newfangled idea that a real princess doesnt need saving. Dont worry, she still gets to fall in syrupy, lovey-dovey love with the long locked man of her dreams. Its just her choice this time around. After her doting father dies of a damageplan soul bleed coronary, Danielle grows up as a servant to her icy stepmother Rodmilla Anjelica Houston and two step sisters, brunette overeater Jacqueline Melanie Lynskey and svelte Marguerite Megan Dodds, an uppity blond intent on winning the hand of Prince Henry Dougray Scott, a rogue royal who cant stand the courtly life hes supposed to lead. Henry is also faced with an ultimatum from his portly father, King Francis Timothy Westhe has five days to announce a marriage to the girl of his choice, or his father will choose for him. When Danielle poses as a courtesan to free a servant her stepmother sold into slavery, she inadvertently draws Henrys attention, and the two fall secretlyinevitablyinexorablyin love. The trouble, of course, is two-fold: Henry doesnt know that Danielle is but a lowly peasant, and Rodmilla, who will do just about anything to make her own daughter Marguerite the next queen of France, hates her with a spitefully irrational passion. The whole charade is revealed at a swanky royal ball, where Danielle shows up wearing some oh-so-1990s glittery makeupnot to mention a pair of angel wings made by, no kidding, Leonardo di Vinci Patrick Godfrey, who serves as a kind of surrogate fairy godmotheronly to be publicly disgraced by her stone cold bi-otch of a step-mum. She flees the scene, leaving behind that iconic glass slipper, but you know how these stories always endwith a chaste kiss between reunited lovers. Where Ever After differs from previous retellings of the age-old story is that Danielle is presented as a smart, capable, dignified woman who finds herself before she finds a prince. She certainly doesnt need rescued. Even when Rodmilla pawns her off to a lascivious-looking businessman who speaks in double entendres and seems intent on, uh, plowing her field, Danielle takes charge of the situation, holds a dagger to the pervs jugular, and forcibly takes back her freedom. If anything, she rescues the prince, helping him to see beyond his prejudices and inspiring him to devote his life to learning. This kind of female empowerment is greatand much needed in an industry where an inordinate amount of heroes are menbut it doesnt necessarily elevate Ever After above the powder-puff promenade of other fairytale romance films. In most other respects, its a rather conventionalenjoyable, but certainly not groundbreakingbit of storytelling aimed squarely at teenaged girls. Im just playing devils advocate, though. The film does have its charms, as evidenced by the fact that it still gets regular rotation inamongst other places, Im surethe dorm rooms of a certain sub-set of clean-cut, conservative college girls. Dont ask me how I know this. Only a truly cold, cynical soul would fail to warm to the relationship that develops between Danielle and Henryas goofy and sentimental as it most of the timeand theres a keen satisfaction in seeing Rodmilla and Marguerite get their just deserts. Anjelica Houston and Megan Dodds are so good at being ingratiating to their bettersand outright horrible to everyone elsethat you wish Drew Barrymore would just suckerpunch the both of them in the mouth. But our heroine plays it cool. This was Barrymores first real starring role, and she works bubbly wonders with it. Ever After arrives on Blu-ray with a 1080p/AVC-encoded transfer that looksto melike it was prepared from an old master intended for DVD. Dont get me wrong, this is definitely a high definition disc, it just shows DVD-like attributes, including some fairly strong edge enhancement, occasionally noticeable compression artifacts, and colors that seem slightly oversaturated at times. Clarity is adequaterevealing detail in the period costuming and the actors facesbut you can tell that some effort has been made to sharpen the image after it was transferred, resulting in mild haloing on certain hard outlines. Likewise, color seems boosted at timesmaking skin tones overly ruddybut not to the point of distraction. On the plus side, black levels are sufficiently deep and the grain structure of the 35mm image is left largely intact, although there are some specks on the print. I get the sense that the film could definitely look better with a proper, more up-to-date transfer. I have no substantial complaints, however, about Ever After s DTS-HD Master Audio 1 surround track, which carries the films limited sonic requirements well. There are really only a few action-intensive sceneshorse chases, brief scuffles and what-have-youand these are presented in a mostly front-heavy fashion, with few cross-channel movements of any kind. Occasionally, though, you will hear some effects panned into the rear speakers, like the sound of wind, tweeting birds, or pouring rain. The surround channels are mostly used for George Fentons orchestral score, which sounds just fine here. The effects, the ambience sound, and the music all come together in a balanced mix with plenty of punch and clarity, and dialogue is clean and expressive throughout. Alas, the lone bonus feature on the disc is a standard definition theatrical trailer, running just shy of two minutes.