apropos of anything

As I drove home Thursday evening, having just spent a good twenty minutes pressing the complex and heart-wrenching Atonement on my book club as our next assignment, I had to wonder if maybe I was taking this “adult” business a bit too seriously. After all, despite much evidence to the contrary, growing up doesn’t have to mean anguish and heartache around every corner.

So tonight Aisha and I went to see Enchanted, the new Disney movie about a cartoon character that suddenly finds herself in real live New York City. The first time I heard about the film, I dismissed it as a Roger Rabbit-wannabe I’d never watch, but after catching a full-length trailer I changed my mind and cajoled Aisha into ditching Kashif for the night and coming with me.

Patrick Dempsey and Amy Adams in Enchanted

It’s a movie that should have been rolling-your-eyes cheesy but was instead so endearing I couldn’t stop smiling, not when the roaches and rats swarmed into Robert’s apartment to clean it, or even when the six brides and grooms magically appeared and began dancing in formation in Central Park.

It’s predictable, of course. A little cliched. You should not think there isn’t an adorable motherless moppet because this is the kind of movie that demands one, nor should you be the tiniest bit surprised when the ballroom dancing begins. What kind of live-action Disney movie would this be without ballroom dancing?

But in spite of all those things, or possibly because of all those things, Enchanted is more full of joy than anything I’ve watched or read in a long time. It’s delightful. It’s exactly what an animated movie would be if it came to life in the middle of Manhattan.

I loved how everybody except the Amy Adams character knows something funny’s going on, but they’re all just too swept up in the magic — and again, it really does feel magical instead of contrived — to wonder why. And speaking of Amy Adams… while the Patrick Dempsey character could just as easily have been played by any other Hollywood pretty boy, Amy Adams is wholly responsible for making this film both lovable and believable. She IS the movie.

(James Marsden is all kinds of fantastic too. Of course he likes himself. What’s not to like? Although, really, just once I wish Marsden’s character could get the girl he sets out to get…)

Back in February, when I asked for book recommendations, this is what I meant. Something joyous. Something that would, in the end, fill me with gladness and make me believe, even if just for a little while, in hope and tomorrow and the idea that there is happily ever after.