Avis Metacritic

An extraordinarily charming movie.

The result is an entertaining comedy for young girls and older girls who still like a good romantic fable.

It's not the best of modern fairy tales but it's sincere and Christina Ricci's earnest and vulnerable performance touches the heart. Penelope is flawed but not irredeemably so.

I wish it were truly special instead of an interesting near-miss.

Ricci is appealingly human, and some acknowledgement of the importance of female friendship, in addition to romance, is faintly touching.

The whimsical ugly-duckling fable becomes more uneven as it proceeds, straining too hard to manufacture its quirky charms.

There are usually good reasons why a movie gets shelved for more than a year, however well-acted it may be and however well-meaning its message. Many are on view in Penelope.

It’s as if Caveny had so many ideas that she simply couldn’t bear to leave any of them crumpled up on her office floor.

Penelope is dead on arrival.

Is there anything more dull than an ineptly cynical fairy tale?