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Sometimes not even a spirited rendition of Queen’s "Somebody to Love" is enough. Belted out by spunky and photogenic Anne Hathaway in the title role, with a chorus of giants and elves and staged on giant-scale furniture, it’s one anachronism in Tommy O’Haver’s broad adaptation of Gail Carson Levine’s Newbery Prize–winning novel, a kind of revision of Cinderella by way of Shrek that’s a lot of fun. Most of the attempts at hip, "adult" humor, however, are sour and gratuitous. Ella’s problem is very contemporary, as it turns out: she’s been "blessed" at birth with a spell from her fairy godmother Lucinda (Vivica A. Fox) that compels her to be always obedient. Adding to her woes are the expected wicked stepmother and stepsisters and an unwilling crush on Prince Charmont (Hugh Dancy), the clueless nephew of the wicked tyrant Prince Regent Henry (Cary Elwes). Broad comedy and social criticism collide to the benefit of neither as the film combines butt cracks and fart jokes with a plea for multiculturalism (it should have stuck to the book’s feminism). Ella doesn’t respect the genre’s innocence or magic, which is disenchanting. (95 minutes)
BY PETER KEOUGH
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