The usual pantomime and comic elements are removed and the story is instead treated as historical fiction. It is often seen as a modern, post-feminism interpretation of the Cinderella myth.[2]
This article's plot summary may be too long or overly detailed. Please help improve it by removing unnecessary details and making it more concise. (January 2011)
The movie begins with the Grimm Brothers visiting an elderly woman, the Grande Dame of France, who while thoroughly enjoying their tales questions their story of the little cinder girl.
The Grimm Brothers reply that there was no way for them to verify the
authenticity of their story as there were so many different versions.
After one of the brothers expressed curiosity about a portrait showing a
young woman, the Grande Dame replies that the woman was Danielle de
Barbarac (Drew Barrymore), reveals a jewel-encrusted glass slipper, and proceeds to tell her story - beginning with "Once upon a time..."
In the sixteenth century of France, eight-year-old Danielle de Barbarac's father, Auguste, marries a baroness with two young daughters, but dies shortly afterward. The Baroness Rodmilla de Ghent (Anjelica Huston)
was already jealous and resentful of Danielle, and ensures her life is
miserable. By the time Danielle is eighteen, the estate has fallen into
decline, as the Baroness has no interest in farming and wishes to get
back to court as soon as possible. The elder daughter Marguerite (Megan Dodds)
has grown to be as cruel and arrogant as her mother, who favors her for
her cunning and calculating personality. The younger daughter,
Jacqueline (Melanie Lynskey),
neglected by her mother, is sweet-tempered and forgiving but powerless.
Danielle has been reduced to a servant in her own house; she sleeps
near the kitchen fireplace and her most prized and virtually only
possession is the last present her father gave her, a small paperback
copy of Thomas More's Utopia.
While collecting apples, Danielle hears the thunder of hooves, and
runs to find a strange man attempting to steal her father's horse.
Enraged, she calls him a thief, and proceeds to throw an apple and hit
him squarely on the forehead. The man, stumbling and bleeding slightly
from the apple's blow, is revealed to be the local Prince. Danielle
falls to the ground in a low bow, embarrassed, and fearing for her life
because of her rash action. The Prince, Henry, hurredly explains that he
was stealing her horse to flee from the royal guard and escape his
'gilded cage'. He takes the horse and pays her 20 gold francs for her
silence on the matter. Astonished by the amount of money, Danielle hides
the gold from her stepmother and conceives of a plan to rescue one of
the maidservant's husbands, and long-time servant friend, Maurice.
Prince Henry, who continues to run and elude the castle guards that
pursue him, comes across a small caravan of gypsies who are sacking an
old man's carriage. The man wails and flags down Henry, claiming that
one of the gypsies has stolen his painting. Henry pauses for a moment,
and nervously recognizes that the guards are hot on his trail. He tries
to shake off the man and race away, but the elderly fellow claims that
"it's a matter of life and death." Henry grudgingly agrees to chase the
bandits, and after an elaborate flight and fight, recovers the painting.
Henry returns the prized painting (later shown to be the Mona Lisa) to
the elderly man, who reveals himself to be Leonardo Da Vinci,
the famed painter who is paying a visit to the King and Queen (Henry's
parents). Sadly, the castle guards catch up with the Prince, and he is
escorted back to the castle followed by Da Vinci.
Meanwhile, deciding to dress in disguise and use her mother's name -
Comtesse Nicole de Lancret - Danielle goes to the royal prison to buy
back Maurice, and save him from being sent to the New World colonies, since he had been sold by the Baroness because of her past due taxes. After meeting Prince Henry (Dougray Scott)
during an argument with the prison guard, (luckily he does not
recognize her as the commoner who threw the apples at him previously) he
is impressed with her forthrightness and strong personality. They have a
series of secretive encounters, with Henry becoming intrigued with her
wit and intelligence but is unaware of her true identity as well as the
fact that it is her stepmother and stepsister that are openly trying to
court his favor for marriage. Unbeknown to Danielle, Henry feels just as
trapped by circumstance as she does: his only real companion being
Laurent, captain of the royal guard, with many courtiers and nobles
wooing him in exchange for favors because of his position, not his
personal identity. With some aid from a travelling Leonardo da Vinci,
who is in fact on his way to the palace, Henry is able to find the
confidence to act naturally with Danielle.
After much deliberation The King and Queen of France give their son
an ultimatum: either he announce his engagement to the woman of his
choosing at the upcoming masquerade ball,
or he will wed the Princess of Spain. Thinking of Danielle, Henry
agrees. Danielle, her stepmother, and stepsisters all receive
invitations to the ball. Marguerite is unsatisfied with any of the
dresses to wear to the ball, so Rodmilla pulls out Danielle's deceased
mother's wedding dress and the matching slippers that were to be given
to Danielle when she got married. Marguerite immediately likes it, and
decides to wear it to the masque. When Danielle catches Marguerite
trying on the dress, Marguerite makes a callous comment about Danielle's
mother being dead and having no use for the fine vestments. Danielle,
infuriated, punches her in the face and chases her around the manor, but
Marguerite retaliates by seizing and threatening to burn Danielle's
copy of Utopia. Although Danielle gives in and allows Marguerite
to take the dress and the glass shoes which come with it, Marguerite,
out of simple spite, burns the book anyway. Under orders from her
stepmother, Danielle is beaten and whipped. Jacqueline attempts to
comfort her and heal her wounds, telling Danielle that she brought this
upon herself and the two share a good laugh about how Marguerite reacted
when she punched her.
Danielle, deciding that she must tell the Prince the truth about her
commoner status, finds him in the forest and attempts to tell him the
truth. Henry, now love-sick, fails to hear what she says and pours his
heart out to her, claiming that he loves her. Danielle is on the verge
of tears, knowing that their love cannot last. The couple kiss, and
Henry moves to pull Danielle into an embrace, but she cries out in pain,
as he has pressed against the deep lash-marks upon her back. Danielle
makes a quick exit, and bids him farewell.
On the evening of the ball, Danielle's stepmother discovers the
interludes between Danielle and Henry, and locks her in the manor's
larder as punishment. Leonardo da Vinci,
who figured out from the first meeting between Henry and Danielle she
was not a noble, frees her and the manor's servants give her the dress
and slippers, which they had hidden. Danielle goes to the ball, where
her stepmother humiliates her by exposing her true identity. Henry
publicly rejects Danielle, labelling her a hypocrite like everyone else
around him. Devastated she runs away, leaving one slipper behind which
is discovered by Leonardo da Vinci. Leonardo reprimands Henry for
abandoning Danielle when she had risked everything for him.
Danielle is sold to a vile landowner, Pierre Le Pieu (Richard O'Brien),
in exchange for all the missing household goods, that Rodmilla had
accused Danielle and the servants of stealing but in reality had been
sold to him to pay off the debt. Henry is about to go through with his
arranged marriage to the Spanish princess, who is so distraught she
comes to the altar sobbing. Realizing that he could not in good
conscience marry someone so obviously unhappy with the arrangement -
just as he is - Henry calls off the wedding in mid-ceremony, encouraging
her to be with her true love, another Spanish nobleman attending the
wedding. He leaves the church with renewed resolve and encounters
Jacqueline and Maurice. After he asks about Danielle, they tell him
Danielle is the prisoner of Le Pieu. As Henry sets off to save her,
Danielle is shown to be Le Pieu's house servant in shackles; he tries to
make a sexual advance towards her, but instead finds himself held by
Danielle at sword-point, and gives her the literal key to her freedom.
She walks out of the castle just as Henry arrives. He begs for her
forgiveness and uses her real name, presenting to her the slipper she
left on the night of the ball. Placing it on her foot, he asks Danielle
to be his wife. With tears of joy, Danielle accepts and the two share a
happy moment, hugging and dancing.
The Baroness and her daughters are summoned to visit the royal court,
assuming that Henry plans to propose to Marguerite based on a lie
Jacqueline tells them. Instead, Rodmilla and Marguerite are told that
they are guilty of treason for lying to the Queen about Danielle's
identity and marital status among other things-an offense punishable by
death. Upon hearing this, Margurite tries to cover up her part in her
mother's schemes by pinning the whole blame on Rodmilla, leading to a
argument between them that is soon stopped by the King. It's then that
Jacqueline reveals her deception to her mother and sister. The Queen
then strips the Baroness and Marguerite of their titles and tells them
that they will be deported to the colonies, unless someone asks for
mercy on their behalf. When no one speaks up for her, Rodmilla realizes
just how alone she truly is. Danielle, whom Henry introduces as his
wife, steps forward and tells Rodmilla she will never think of her
again, but that she will remember Danielle for the rest of her life.
Then, she asks the King and Queen to show the same treatment to her
stepmother and stepsister as they treated her. Rodmilla and Marguerite
are sent to work in the royal laundry for the rest of their days, which
isn't so happy for them. Jacqueline, who had always been kind to
Danielle, is spared punishment. She falls in love with Captain Laurent,
whom she met at the ball. As the story ends, the elderly lady reveals to
the Brothers Grimm that she is Danielle's great-great-granddaughter,
and still has her glass slipper and Da Vinci's portrait, leaving the
Brothers Grimm with the real lesson of the fairy tale - not merely that
they lived happily ever after, but that they really did live and the
story is indeed true.
Ever After was filmed in Super 35 mm film format, but both the widescreen
and pan-and-scan versions are included on the same DVD. This is also
the only Super 35 mm film ever directed by Andy Tennant. The
Tennant-directed films before this were filmed with spherical lenses.
The ones after it were filmed with anamorphic lenses.
The castle shown in the film is the Château de Hautefort. Filming also occurred in Dordogne, France at the Châteaux de Fénélon, de Losse, de Lanquas, de Baynec and the city of Sarlat.
The painting of Danielle seen in the film is based on Leonardo's Female Head (La Scapigliata).
Ever After has received mostly positive reviews from critics. Review aggregation website Rotten Tomatoes reports that 90% of critics have given the film a positive review based on 61 reviews, with an average score of 7.5/10.[3] The critical consensus is: Ever After is a sweet, frothy twist on the ancient fable, led by a solid turn from star [Drew] Barrymore.[3] Among Rotten Tomatoes' Cream of the Crop, which consists of popular and notable critics from the top newspapers, websites, television, and radio programs,[4] the film holds an overall approval rating of 76% based on 17 reviews.[5] Another review aggregator, Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 top reviews from mainstream critics, calculated a favorable score of 66 based on 22 reviews.[6]
Lisa Schwarzbaum from Entertainment Weekly gave the film an B-, saying: "Against many odds, Ever After
comes up with a good one. This novel variation is still set in the
once-upon-a-time 16th century. But it features an active, 1990s-style
heroine -- she argues about economic theory and civil rights with her
royal suitor -- rather than a passive, exploited hearth sweeper who
warbles "A Dream Is a Wish Your Heart Makes"."[7]
She also praised Anjelica Huston's performance as a cruel stepmother:
"Huston does a lot of eye narrowing and eyebrow raising while toddling
around in an extraordinary selection of extreme headgear, accompanied by
her two less-than-self-actualized daughters -- the snooty,
social-climbing, nasty Marguerite, and the dim, lumpy, secretly nice
Jacqueline. "Nothing is final until you're dead", Mama instructs her
girls at the dinner table, "and even then I'm sure God negotiates"."[7]
Chicago Sun-Times film critic Roger Ebert,
while praising the film with 3 out of 4 stars, wrote that "The movie
[...] is one of surprises, not least that the old tale still has life
and passion in it. I went to the screening expecting some sort of soppy
children's picture and found myself in a costume romance with some of
the same energy and zest as The Mask of Zorro.
And I was reminded again that Drew Barrymore can hold the screen and
involve us in her characters. [...] Here, as the little cinder girl, she
is able to at last put aside her bedraggled losers and flower as a
fresh young beauty, and she brings poignancy and fire to the role."[8]
Both Newsweek and Rolling Stone
magazine praised the movie's intelligence and wit, although some
critics also noted its "confusing switch between humor and seriousness."
A musical version of the film is currently in the works, with the book and lyrics by Marcy Heisler and music by Zina Goldrich. The musical was scheduled to have its world premiere in April 2009 at the Curran Theatre in San Francisco, but the pre-Broadway run has been postponed.[9]
The theatrical trailer was noted for its use of contemporary dance music with images of a classic fairy tale.
This signaled to the public that this would be a modern interpretation
of a traditional story. The two pieces of music used in the trailer are "The Mummers' Dance" by Loreena McKennitt and "Fable" by Robert Miles.
