Roger Ebert

By ROGER EBERT

Itís no surprise to me that Amy Adams is enchanting. She won my heart in ìJunebugî (2005), where she told her clueless husband: ìGod loves you just the way you are, but he loves you too much to let you stay that way.î You should have seen ìJunebugî by now, which means you will not be surprised by how fresh and winning Amy Adams is in ìEnchanted,î where her role absolutely depends on effortless lovability.

Sheís so lovable, in fact, she starts life as an animated princess in a Disney-style world. The birds, flowers, chipmunks and cockroaches even love her and do her bidding. Listen, if you could employ the roaches of the world, youíd have a hell of a workforce. The princess is named Giselle, she has a beautiful singing voice, and although she resists singing ìSomeday, My Prince Will Come,î I think sheís always humming it to herself.

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What results is a heart-winning musical comedy that skips lightly and sprightly from the lily pads of hope to the manhole covers of actuality, if you see what I mean. Iím not sure I do. Anyway, Prince Edward follows her to New York, along with his manservant Nathaniel (Timothy Spall in full Jeeves sail) and her chipmunk. But do not rush to the conclusion that Giselle and Edward find love in Gotham, because there is the complication of Robert (Patrick Dempsey), the handsome single dad she meets. Heís raising a daughter named Morgan (Rachel Covey), and Morgan of course likes her on the spot when she ends up living with them as a homeless waif from an unimaginable place.

Not so welcoming is Nancy (Idina Menzel), who already fills the girlfriend slot in Robertís life. Sheís nice enough, but can she hold her ground against a movie princess? Not in a PG-rated world. So the romance and the adventure play out in ways that would be familiar enough in an animated comedy, but seem daring in the real world. First we get animation based on reality (ìBeowulfî), and now reality based on animation.

The movie has a sound background in Disney animation, starting with director Kevin Lima (ìTarzan,î ìA Goofy Movieî) and including the music by Alan Menken and lyrics Stephen Schwartz, who composed for ìPocahontasî and ìThe Hunchback of Notre Dame.î More important, it has a Disney willingness to allow fantasy into life, so New York seems to acquire a new playbook.

We know, for example, that there are bugs in Manhattan. Millions of them, in a city where the garbage left overnight on the sidewalk must seem like a never-ending buffet. But when Giselle recruits roaches to help her clean Robertís bathtub ó well, I was going to say, youíll never think of roaches the same way again, but actually, you will. I am reminded of ìJoeís Apartmentî (1996), which used 5,000 real roaches, and of which I wrote: ìThat depresses me, but not as much as the news that none of them were harmed during the production.î

Anyway, the roach scene is soon over, and the scheming begins, much aided by Sarandonís evil queen, who fears the specter of her son Edward marrying the unworthy Giselle. I am not sure that Robert and Morgan fully understand from whence Giselle comes, but they respond to the magic in her, and so do we.
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Roger Ebert, a Pulitzer Prize-winning film critic, is a syndicated columnist based at the Chicago Sun-Times.