By now, you know exactly what you're getting with a Hilary Duff movie — a big old heaping dose of cutesiness and sweet sentimentality. It just depends on your particular mind-set whether that makes the film sickeningly sweet and painfully predictable, or whether that makes it all the more enjoyable.
Duff's latest, "A Cinderella Story," won't change anyone's mind either way. If anything, it's even more cutesy and by-the-numbers than what she's done so far (including television).
In other words, anyone who's not already a Duff fan should stay away. And given the lack of energy and innovation at work here, even fans may find this one redundant and lackluster.
"A Cinderella Story" attempts to put a slightly different spin on the much-filmed fairy tale, setting things in the modern day and changing the location to the San Fernando Valley. That's where we find Sam Montgomery (Duff), a hard-working, straight-A student. She also waits hand and foot on her wicked, cosmetic-surgery-obsessed stepmother (Jennifer Coolidge) and her idiotic stepsisters (Andrea Avery and Madeline Zima).
Things aren't all bad, of course. She's carrying on an e-mail and text-message romance with a fellow student, who's finally persuaded her to go to the big Halloween dance where they can meet for the first time (and where her mask-and-gown-ensemble may be the worst disguise this side of Clark Kent). As it turns out, her dream guy is actually Austin Ames (Chad Michael Murray, from TV's "One Tree Hill"), the school's hunky football star, who may not be as shallow as she previously thought.
Of all this film's laughable conceits, perhaps the worst is trying to convince us that Duff could go unnoticed and be unpopular simply because she
has a baseball cap pulled down over her eyes.
To be fair, at least she seems to be trying, even if her performance consists mostly of smiling or pouting her way through various scenes; sometimes, for variety, she'll even scrunch up her nose, suggesting confusion.
Murray fares better, if for no other reason than he at least seems to be mimicking emotional turmoil. Of course, that could be the result of having to deliver some of this film's unbelievably awful dialogue.
The supporting cast deserves much better, especially Regina King and Dan Byrd, who plays Sam's best friend and garners the film's only laughs.
"A Cinderella Story" is rated PG for some scenes of slapstick violence (including rough-housing and cat-fighting), crude humor involving bodily functions (including a flatulence gag) and scattered use of mild profanity (religiously based). Running time: 97 minutes.
E-MAIL: jeff@desnews.com