I can truthfully say that watching this abysmal fantasy-comedy is less rewarding than being slapped across the face with a large wet fish.

| Original Score: 1/5 | Oct 18, 2008

A modern-day fairytale, the film is tarted up like a hyperactive five-year-old's lurid fantasy of interior decor.

| Original Score: 2/5 | Oct 18, 2008

Is this meant to be dark comedy? It's hard to tell.

| Original Score: 1.5/5 | Jun 25, 2008

It's not eccentric enough to be as otherworldly as it wants to be, but it's too self-consciously quirky to perform on its own merits.

| Original Score: 3/5 | May 1, 2008

The convictions of the cast and an extremely snappy script fill in most of the gaps caused by the wobbly plotlines.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Mar 7, 2008

I think it's a sweet film.

Full Review | Mar 3, 2008

A precocious fairy tale made for and starring people too old for whimsy

| Original Score: C | Mar 2, 2008

Just another stab at modern fantasy with some fatal filmmaking flaws that are all-too-real.

| Feb 29, 2008

While uneven, this Ugly Duckling redux is hipper and funnier than a Disney movie, and the positive message to young girls can't be discounted.

| Original Score: 2.5/4 | Feb 29, 2008

The semi-satirical treatment of celebrity culture, as Penelope is treated first as a tabloid sensation then a media darling, is lame and dated.

| Original Score: 2/4 | Feb 29, 2008

Sweet as gingerbread, Penelope deserves to find an audience; those with a taste for happily-ever-afters should look for it, before it too-quickly disappears.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/4 | Feb 29, 2008

Director Palansky and screenwriter Leslie Caveny seem to have many of the right ingredients for creating something beguiling, but the film is, finally, surprisingly pedestrian. What a shame, with all these good performers.

| Original Score: 2/4 | Feb 29, 2008

The picture has a hapless, meandering quality that's tolerable at first but ultimately becomes maddening, as if it were a cartoon narrative recounted by a distracted 4-year-old.

Full Review | Feb 29, 2008

Penelope was in a trough of trouble before the oink on the script was dry.

| Feb 29, 2008

Under Mark Palansky's uninspired direction, magic eludes Penelope in scene after scene.

| Original Score: 1.5/4 | Feb 29, 2008

This could have been a perfect choice for the Enchanted set, if only its charms were more than skin-deep.

| Original Score: 2.5/4 | Feb 29, 2008

Perhaps the best reason to recommend Penelope is that it offers an opportunity to watch Catherine O'Hara in action as the alarming Mrs. Wilhern.

Full Review | Original Score: 2.5/4 | Feb 29, 2008

It's broadly comic, sweetly sentimental and sharply satirical at times -- particularly when it takes on the concept of celebrity -- and both parents and kids should walk away satisfied if not quite elated.

| Original Score: B- | Feb 29, 2008

This half-baked fairy tale always seems to be on the verge of becoming charming but despite a good cast it never quite succeeds.

| Original Score: B- | Feb 29, 2008

The message in Leslie Caveny's script is ultimately too dispiriting a cop-out. This story could have gone in a number of more inspiring allegorical directions but winds up your average bedtime story instead.

| Original Score: 1.5/4 | Feb 29, 2008