Cinderella film lacks creativity

Teen star Hilary Duff wants to find her prince.
By CARRIE RICKEY
KNIGHT RIDDER NEWSPAPERS
A certain evergreen is losing its needles.
Where "Ever After" was a terrific feminist re-imagining of Cinderella, and "The Prince and Me" at the very least allowed one to fantasize about the possibility of being both a doctor and Prince Charming's wife, "A Cinderella Story" is a mostly charmless affair. This, even though it boasts the bouncy Hilary Duff as the girl who wants her prince and early decision admittance to Princeton.
The good news is that "Clueless" and "Ever After" proved that there was an audience for a smart Cinderella rethink.
The bad news is that drippy movies such as "Ella Enchanted," "Sleepover" and "A Cinderella Story" are formulaic affairs that suggest that this fairy tale's expiration date has passed.
Variations
Substituting a diner waitress (Regina King) for the fairy godmother and a cell phone for the glass slipper, this Cinderella is set in the supposedly disenchanted kingdom of the San Fernando Valley.
There, Sam (Duff) attends high school, tends to the domestic demands of her shrewish stepmother, Fiona (Jennifer Coolidge), and buses tables at the retro-cool diner founded by her late father.
As this is a contemporary Cinderella story, you know without asking that Sam's stepsisters and stepmom force her to work while they play at the plastic surgeon and the mall.
The one new wrinkle in this Cinderella's white tulle gown is that, borrowing from "You've Got Mail," Sam has an intense, anonymous e-mail relationship with an unknown prince who just happens to be the star of her high school's football team and the senior class hottie, Austin Ames (Chad Michael Murray, of television's "One Tree Hill").