Penelope

Although it starts off as whimsy, Penelope turns into a fairly sober dramedy about the perils of being “different” that also serves up some lighthearted commentary regarding today's celebrity culture. Christina Ricci is charming and funny as the privileged young woman cursed at birth with a nose resembling a pig's snout. While her embarrassed parents (Richard E. Grant, Catherine O'Hara) keep Penelope locked up on the family estate and offer to pay prospective suitors to take the girl off their hands, Penelope dreams of escaping the mink-lined prison to make her own way in the world. Reese Witherspoon—who co-produced the film—costars as a free-spirited bike messenger who befriends Penelope and helps her become a celebrity, while James McAvoy (Atonement) is appropriately scruffy as a would-be suitor, and Peter Dinklage shines in his relatively brief scenes as a one-eyed paparazzo. Filmmaker Mark Palansky's Penelope is reasonably entertaining but also uneven, suffering from vacillations in tone that undermine the central premise, as well as a fairy-tale ending that effectively neutralizes the third act's satirical bite. Optional. (E. Hulse)