‘Penelope’ comes close to charming

The cast is terrific, with
Christina Ricci in the title role.

By ROGER MOORE

ORLANDO SENTINEL

“Penelope” is a generally charming romantic fantasy that’s a lot more twee than “whee.”

This modern-day fairy tale, about a young woman “cursed” to go through life with a piggish snout for a nose, is filled with warm messages about the beauty within, self-worth and society’s ever-evolving standards of appearance. It’s just seriously thin on laugh-out-loud moments.

Christina Ricci is aptly cast in the title role, a smart, lonely, lovesick lass raised out of the public eye by her wealthy, Social Register parents (Catherine O’Hara and Richard E. Grant). Mom, in particular, wants to protect her from the world and its scorn at her porcine proboscis.

“You’re not your nose!” she lectures. But that nose is something to fear, to be ashamed of. That’s mom’s real message.

Plastic surgery isn’t possible. But there is hope. Penelope is merely suffering from an ancient witch’s curse on her family, one that can be lifted if one “of your own kind” loves her for herself.

Thus, Mom’s endless matrimonial tryouts. If only the prospective “blue blood” suitors would stop leaping through (closed) windows at the sight of the girl.

Peter Dinklage is wonderfully sleazy as a paparazzi who has tried to get a peek at Penelope and her beak her entire life. He and one mean-spirited suitor hire a rich lad with a gambling problem (James McAvoy) to court her so that he can get Penelope’s photo for the local tabloid.

And his courtship, much of it staged through a two-way mirror in which she can see him but he can’t see her, is as engaging as any PG romance can be. They connect. They flirt. It’s a pity he, too, washes out. But at least she’s driven to make a break for it, see the world, make a friend (Reese Witherspoon, adorable) and have a beer at the local pub. Will the world accept her? Will she find true love?

“Penelope’s” tortured history is almost as convoluted as the tale on screen. Set in a fantasy hybrid of London and New York, it was more or less finished in time to make the 2006 Toronto Film Festival. It’s been cut and tinkered with, though the filmmakers haven’t been able to rustle up more laughs or more pathos for it in the editing booth.

It never cracks you up and never breaks your heart, though O’Hara comes close to achieving both of those goals as a hysterical, overprotective mom who ought to know better than to hide her child from the world.

And the nose itself isn’t really ugly enough to send anybody out a window. Ricci didn’t go for the full “Nanny McPhee” effect, which would’ve been funnier.

What “Penelope” offers is a terrific cast willing to emphasize the charming, a decent fake nose and a message that any parent would love to pass on to a child — love yourself and the world will love you back.