PENELOPE **½

Marking director Mark Palansky's feature film debut, Penelope stars Christina Ricci, James McAvoy, Catherine O'Hara, Reese Witherspoon, Peter Dinklage, Richard E. Grant, and Simon Woods. The comedy/drama/fantasy is one hour and thirty minutes long and is rated PG for thematic elements, some innuendo and language.

Ricci is a young woman afflicted by a secret family curse that can only be broken when she is loved by one of her own kind. She's been hidden away since birth by her wealthy parents, O'Hara and Grant, who as she becomes a young woman try and find someone to marry her so the curse will be lifted. Woods plays one of the suitors who is appalled by her looks and who joins with photographer Dinklage in attempting to get a picture of her. McAvoy originally meets her as a way to make money but their relationship develops into something else.

This film has been sitting on the shelf for a year so I can't say I was expecting much. I was pleasantly surprised. It is a romantic fantasy that doesn't end as well as it starts but is enjoyable nonetheless. Had the ending been a little stronger this could easily have been a three star film. Ricci is great, O'Hara is typical O'Hara and Witherspoon is fine in her limited role (she was also a producer). The rest of the cast acquitted themselves well. This is a good couples film and should also be enjoyed by young and teen girls.