Monday, February 22, 2010

Penelope - Just a Fairy Tale?

Well, I guess I'll do my first movie review. :) I didn't know if I'd ever do one, but when you watch a movie like Penelope, you start to see just how mach damage can be done through movies like these. So there you have it. My excuse for doing a movie review.

Now, for the review.

~Penelope~



In this movie there are several things that come to mind after watching it. While it was brained out by a someone who knew what they were doing, it also carried some negative things that should be repulsive to us Christians. Mind you, it was very witty, funny, captivating, the plot moved along fast enough, and the timing of several major scenes was just right. But... Does that make it a good movie?

It's about a girl - Penelope - who gets a family curse (from her dad's side nonetheless) which makes her have the nose of a pig, which makes her family fake her death and then keep her shut up inside their house. Her family believes that, according to the curse, she has to marry a blue-blood, and then her piggy-snout will disappear! Well, they set up a system of "weeding out the unlikelies", trying to find a husband who will marry her. Well, to make it short, one guy doesn't see her "ugly" face when see shows everyone, so he sticks around. One of the other main characters does see it and runs away. Well, she decides after that that she wants to go to the outside world and see everything for herself, so she dons the scarf and heads out! Well, after getting drunk, she finds someone who takes her around to several places, and then she ends up passing out, because her mom and dad are chasing her, trying to get her to come back. Well, off comes the scarf and everyone knows her all of a sudden! Well, she was to marry the guy who thinks she's really ugly, but ends up not doing it last-minute. She then goes inside and basically says (I'm paraphrasing) "I don't want to marry him because I like who I am now." Then the curse is magically broken! She actually had the power to break the curse without marrying a blue-blood. Then she goes and finds the other guy who didn't run when she showed him her piggy-face, and ends up maybe marrying him? She kissed him a long time sure, but it wasn't clear if she married him or not. But whatever, she lived happily ever after.

Now, let's look at some of the elements in the movie.

1. Family.
The mom was the overpowering influence. You could see that through the movie. The dad didn't make any decisions in his family, and was never there until you see him say that the curse was all his fault. The mom was controlling to the point of hiring a "yenta", basically a matchmaker and telling the dad what to do and what not to do. She also decided on things that fathers should decide on... But the father wasn't there. It's a bad case of trying to present this messed up family as the norm.

This movie is coming from a worldly worldview, so you shouldn't be surprised if things don't look like the Bible says they ought to.

2. Language, etc.
I don't think that even one of the main characters made it through the movie without uttering an expletive! there were some of them who did it multiple times! God's name was taken in vain several times, usually right before something very funny, so that you were laughing instead of being appalled that they could do that. Typical Hollywood for you. Then there was the part where she gets drunk. They made it into a funny scene too. there was also a lot of gambling in it, along with some emotional love scenes. Maybe clear-play would take all that stuff out, but then you have to deal with the messages in it too.

3. Salvation.
? Huh? What am I talking about? Where'd I get that?? I'll tell you. What has to happen to reach the "happily-ever-after" stage? Well, God has to work His mighty power in you for that to happen in real life, it's nothing you can do, God does it. Well, there the curse holds the key to happiness and Penelope has the power over the curse to break it. The curse had the power (not God) to make Penelope different and eventually to make her normal, and also to make her happy or not. The witch basically took the place of God in the movie.

4 The Curse.
I have just one question. Would you watch something that has witchcraft in it? I almost left the movie when I saw there was some in it, but God told me to stay. Why? I don't know. Maybe it was to warn you. Maybe it was to teach me of the evil there is out in the world. We have to be careful.

So there you have it. there are a TON of other aesthetic elements in it that are wrong, but that would take too much time to delve into right now. I wouldn't mind if you asked me about them later.

Go watch Fireproof. Just take out the last kissing scene and mute it for some of the music, and you have a good movie to watch. I'll let you decide if you're going to watch Penelope, it does have some lessons that we as Christians can learn from it... If God gives you the wisdom to see through all the muck.

Frisbeeman

6 comments:

  1. Hmmm. Interesting. I hadn't seen/heard much about this movie, so it was good to see a perspective on it.

    Out of curiosity-what music do you mute in Fireproof?

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  2. Whoops. I meant Facing the Giants. I didn't really have too many problems with the music on Fireproof, but I didn't really care for their selection of music (in Facing the Giants) when they got some Third Day songs for the Football scenes... It was just too obnoxious and I thought it led the scene in the wrong diection.

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  3. Jay--Great review. I've never heard of this movie, and now I won't see it. :)

    I still want to see Persuasion with your mom. :D

    Mrs. Soto

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  4. Hey justus-the kissing scene was Kirk Cameron's wife.
    Just wanted to let you know.

    Andy Romanowitz from Illinois

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  5. I just realized that my comment was employing the most horrible grammar. (was that better?) Anyway, I agree with you on the music. I think you were right about Fireproof in regards to the music, even if you didn't mean to be. Hey, how many young guys put "classical" as their favorite music on blogger profiles?

    Andy Romanowitz from Illinois

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  6. Justus, I really liked something that you pointed out, about salvation. It's interesting that every worldview has a soteriology, a doctrine of salvation/redemption. The same is true for most, perhaps even all, movies.

    Dan Romanowitz

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