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Reviews

Penelope

Christina Ricci is still coming of age

By BETSY SHERMAN | February 27, 2008

2.0 Stars

Penelope

Although she’s pushing 30, Christina Ricci is still coming of age in Mark Palansky’s modern-day fairy tale, where waifish charm gets her over the speed bumps of labored premise and inelegant plotting. The victim of a witch’s curse, our poor little rich girl was born with a pig’s snout. Her overbearing mom (Catherine O’Hara) has hidden her away and is now arranging a marriage to “one of her own kind” to lift the curse. A reporter (Peter Dinklage) who wonders why suitors enter and then flee the Wilhern mansion hires hapless Max (James McAvoy) as a mole, and a sweetly comic courtship blooms as Penelope banters with Max through a one-way mirror — even though Max can’t see her, he’s the only one who sees her. It’s a pity the leads have to split for parallel journeys of self-discovery, with Penelope running away from home (like Babe a pig nose in the city) to become a media darling. Palansky’s winning visuals can’t make up for the story’s silliness. 102 minutes | Boston Common + Fenway + Fresh Pond + Circle/Chestnut Hill + suburbs

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