REVIEWED - A CINDERELLA STORY: HILARY Duff is an unexceptional young woman with a vast following of teenage girls, but she's admired less for her so-so acting talents and anaemic singing voice than for a putative ability to represent excluded sections of teenage society, writes Donald Clarke.
But nobody so cheerful and blandly good looking is likely to induce empathy in the properly fat, greasy and socially uncomfortable. No, though Hilary generally plays less popular teens, she remains an aspirational figure for girls too well behaved to want to be Christina Aguilera.
A Cinderella Story is - in more ways than one - a classic Duff vehicle. Set deep in the San Fernando Valley, the film risks alienating its viewers by brutally killing off both of the protagonist's parents in the first 10 minutes. Sadly, before young Samantha's father has his grim appointment with destiny, he just has time to marry the frightfully vulgar Fiona, thus ensuring that she inherit his cheery, old-fashioned diner.
What slim pleasures the film offers all come via the mighty Jennifer Coolidge (Stifler's Mom from American Pie) who brings her customary brassy sexuality to the evil stepmother. Fiona, favouring her not-that-ugly daughters, forces Samantha to slave away in the diner, which Fiona paints an ugly shade of pink as she cunningly plans to thwart the unfortunate teen's ambitions to go to Princeton.
In this version, Prince Charming is represented by the captain of the football team. The lost slipper becomes a mislaid mobile phone. The fairy godmother is the hard-working African-American manager of the diner. But the more irresistible traditions of the high school movie quickly overpower those of the fairy story.Once again we are introduced to the oddball best friend, the glossy harpies and the mindless jocks. No form of dramatic entertainment since the time of the commedia dell'arte has utilised such a precisely defined set of stock characters, and Hollywood's slavish adherence to the high school movie template has become wearisome.
Still, Duff's many fans will probably enjoy A Cinderella Story. Frankly, I don't think I could warm to any youngster able to recognise a universe in which having an insufficiently well maintained car - not no car at all, mind, just a rubbishy one - could single a teenager out for ridicule. What has become of us?
