Translated material
Didn't come out with a stigma
"Penelope" on Moscow screens
In the very first minutes after the opening credits of Mark Palansky’s feature-length debut, a girl’s voice is heard behind the scenes: “My parents knew no need...” And it’s true that the parents of young Penelope Wilhern (Christina Ricci), however, like many other previous generations of Wilhern, lived happily ever after . But one day, one of the representatives of an aristocratic family had his eye on a young lady who was inappropriate for his status, but his relatives quickly let him know what was what. And young lady, go ahead and kill yourself. And from that moment on, the worm of a curse began to gnaw at the spreading family tree: the very first girl born into the Wilhern family had to seriously pay for the sins of her ancestors. For many generations, only boys were born in the family, and they began to forget about the curse. But Mrs. Wilhern (Catherine O'Hara) gave birth to Penelope. And it turned out that everything was serious. A charming girl in every way was born with a pig's snout instead of a nose, and her prosperous life went awry. Penelope's father (Richard Grant) had to forever give up his favorite bacon in the morning in favor of disgusting oatmeal, the girl herself was declared dead, allegedly cremated and locked up forever, and only the imperturbable butler Jake (Michael Feast), playing with the baby, every now and then he cracked jokes about roast beef. And the invited surgeon immediately rejected the option of plastic surgery, because (and this, apparently, was also implied by the curse) the baby’s carotid artery passes exactly through the snout. Years passed, Penelope grew up locked up in a luxurious mansion, and her only entertainment remained conversations through translucent glass with numerous suitors from whom the Wilherns took a non-disclosure agreement. Penelope definitely had to be married off, because only one thing can dispel the evil spell: if someone equal to the Wilherns in nobility ever agrees to take the poor thing as a wife. There is, however, less and less hope for this: as soon as it came to the auditions, the applicants preferred to throw themselves screaming out of the window. But then a certain Johnny (James McAvoy), a gambler and drinker who did not jump out of the window, appeared on the horizon. On the contrary, he came the next day. And the next one too...What I can’t believe until the very end is that “Penelope” is not based on some very good, but for some reason still untranslated Anglo-Saxon children’s book, like the fairy tales of Roald Dahl or Lemony Snicket. But no - in the final credits there are no references to the original source, so we have to admit that this whole story from beginning to end was invented by a single screenwriter, Leslie Caveney, who is still known exclusively for television work. Honor and praise to him. A more sympathetic, touching and at the same time caustic fairy tale for all ages has not appeared on the screen for a long time. Caveney's sources of inspiration are obvious - these are the early Tim Burton and his films about romantic outcasts (by analogy with "Edward Scissorhands" the film could be called "Penelope - Piglet Nose", and in the fates of Penelope and the Penguin Man from "Batman Returns" has a lot in common); black comedies about eccentric cells of society (Ricci once brilliantly played Wednesday in the still impeccable “The Addams Family”); fairy tales topsy-turvy - from “few of us have seen and loved “The Princess Bride” to the universally adored “Shrek”. There is also room here for a pathology that is invariable in British children's literature and cinema, albeit adapted, but still obvious - like the glazed children from "Willy Wonka" or Nanny McPhee's wart in "Nanny McPhee": after all, no matter how you look at it, it's a girl with a pig's snout - it's not particularly great (the stress in the last word can be placed on either the first or the last syllable). But with all this, this is an absolutely original and amazing world (this becomes especially clear when Penelope voluntarily leaves her home and, covering herself with a scarf, goes to explore the world around her, completely unknown to her, where she finds a friend in the person of the broken Annie (“Blonde”) in law” Reese Witherspoon, this time forgetting about her superstar status and enthusiastically playing second fiddle). in our times it is almost an order.
Of course, there will be a wedding here too. And the spell will eventually break in the best possible way. And from now on the carotid artery will pass exactly where it is supposed to. But it is almost impossible to predict exactly how this will happen - the invention and ingenuity of the authors will make you slap yourself on the forehead with enthusiasm more than once or twice. "Penelope" is a funny, smart and incredibly touching film that hasn't been made in a long time. So, towards the end, the author of these lines, willy-nilly, was forced to shed tears (just like the young representatives of the gothic subculture sitting nearby, who came to the film, clearly seduced by the former, much more infernal roles of Ricci, but in the end, clapping the entire film like first-graders at the New Year's party).
If there were a snout instead of a nose, I would sniff with it too.