“Why Penelope? “ Asks her mother; as yet another suitor makes a terrified dash out of the house.
“I’m not the one who ran mother.” Penelope replies coldly, her back to the audience.
“Well of course they run darling. When you spring on them like that! Do you think I showed your father my mole on our first date? No! I had the decency to wait until after we were married!”
“I didn’t show him my mole, mother. I showed him my face!” Penelope wheels around to glare at her mother and the audience sees her face as well for the first time. Long dark hair in gentle curls, pretty brown eyes, nice skin, but wait? What’s wrong with her nose? Why does it look like a snout? Holy Cow! I mean-pig! She has a pig nose!

Why does Penelope have a pig nose? Well I’m glad you asked. You see, a long time ago, one of her ancestor’s had an affair with a witch’s daughter, but because she was a commoner, he didn’t want to marry her. Instead he married for status to someone like himself . The daughter “fell of a cliff” and her mother cursed all his descendents, saying that the next baby girl of his lineage would be born with the face of a pig.
“And only when someone of her own kind will take her, ‘til death do us part, will the curse be broken.”

With a curse like that weighing on her, Penelope’s mother works day and night in order to protect Penelope from the outside world until she could find a suitable blue blood like themselves to break the curse. Locked up like a princess in a tower, Penelope (Cristina Ricci) dreams of being free to see the world outside her mansion prison. She grows up longing to see the street fairs, the park, and meeting people who don’t run from her because she is finally normal. The only way to escape is to find true love, but that seems impossible. When Max Campwell, (James McAvoy) shows up and doesn’t run away like the rest, she begins to hope that freedom and normality is close at hand. But Max has his own secrets to hide, and he says he can’t marry her, leaving her more broken-hearted then before.

Starring Christina Ricci, James McAvoy, and Reese Witherspoon, this modern fairytale is one for the whole family to watch and enjoy. (Or for those who don’t want to watch with their family, this is the movie I always watch when I need to cheer up.) Because Penelope is the best movie to realize how beautiful life really is.