Salt Lake Tribune Review

Enchanted is Disney's amusing riff on its own fairy-tale heritage - a kinder and gentler Shrek, if you will - that wouldn't be nearly so enchanting without Amy Adams, an actress whom you truly can believe as a make-believe princess.
When we are introduced to Adams' character, Giselle, she's all ink and paint - she's the central figure in her own animated cartoon, waiting for her prince to come. Sure enough, Prince Edward arrives and they sing a musical duet that seals their engagement. But on the day of the wedding, Giselle is lured by Edward's evil stepmother Narissa to a wishing well. Giselle falls in . . . and pops out a manhole cover in Times Square, as flesh and blood as her New York surroundings.
With no castle for shelter or talking woodland creatures to help her, she gets reluctant aid from Robert (Patrick Dempsey), a high-powered divorce lawyer and single dad to precocious Morgan (Rachel Covey). Robert, though engaged to the sensible Nancy (Idina Menzel), doesn't believe in Giselle's notions of fairy-tale romance - even when she launches into an impromptu musical number (written by Alan Menken and Stephen Schwartz, collaborators on Pocahontas and The Hunchback of Notre Dame) in the middle of Central Park.
Meanwhile, Edward (James Marsden, in an ego-tweaking comic turn) comes out the same manhole to find Giselle, aided and/or hampered by Narissa's minion Nathaniel (Timothy Spall). (Narissa, played with scenery-chomping glee by Susan Sarandon, pops up in New York for the effects-heavy finale.)
Director Kevin Lima (who directed 102 Dalmatians and co-directed Tarzan) and writer Bill Kelly (Premonition) have lots of fun with the fairy-tale conventions - such as the scene where Giselle summons Manhattan's fauna, pigeons and rats and cockroaches, to clean Robert's apartment. Lima and Kelly, alas, can't resist the toilet jokes, and they fall under the evil spell of the special-effects wizards in the final reel.
But a spoonful of sugar from Adams (Talladega Nights, Junebug) makes it all go down smoothly. She plays Giselle as perpetually sunny, even when dealing with the travails of New York (OK, not the real New York, but a New York more Disney-fied than even Rudy Giuliani tried to make it) and the shock when Robert tells her some romances don't end happily ever after. Adams carries Enchanted's fairy-tale conceit on her tiny shoulders - and on her, it floats as if sprinkled with pixie dust.
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* SEAN P. MEANS can be reached at movies@sltrib.com or 801-257-8602. Send comments about this review to livingeditor@sltrib.com.

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