Hey, everyone. “Moriarty” here.

Capone just shamed me. When I opened that e-mail from him with all those finished reviews in it, and I looked at my own open document with a list of films that I haven’t written about, I was just filled with shame and frustration. I’ve been on the road with my family, and I’ve been striking, and I’ve been finishing stuff under crazy deadlines just before the strike... and that all adds up to me being very, very behind at everything else.

So I’m going to match him. I’m going to tag-team with him, putting up one of mine for every one of his that I’m putting up. He’s sent in so many today that it pretty much guarantees I’ll be sitting here at this desk until laaaaaate tonight. But so be it. Let’s do this.

A few weeks back, my wife and I snuck out mid-afternoon, just after putting Toshi down for a nap. We left his grandmother in charge and sped across the valley to the Disney lot, where they were showing ENCHANTED at the Frank Wells screening room.

I find that my wife goes to fewer screenings these days. She’s expecting again, and it’s got to be something she reeeeeeally wants to see before she’ll volunteer to sit for two hours in a theater seat. As soon as we saw the first trailer for ENCHANTED earlier this year, she told me that she wanted to go to any screening of it that I attended. She’s a Disney fan, and it’s a particular span of Disney films that she likes most of all. THE LITTLE MERMAID. BEAUTY & THE BEAST. ALADDIN. THE LION KING. The entirely unsurprising monster hit phase of the early ‘90s. When Disney could do no wrong. They used the princess archetype, a refined and vaguely post-modern update of the classic Disney heroine. That’s the character she likes most, the thing that attracts her to those films. ENCHANTED is a pretty canny blend of PRETTY WOMAN and ROGER RABBIT, a high-concept romantic comedy that not only makes room for a happy ending but that positively demands one on a thematic level. This is an affectionate satire of Disney films as a genre, but it’s not looking to destroy the genre. If anything, it is a potent reminder of how good they are at exploiting this particular formula.

The script by Bill Kelly benefits enormously from having Kevin Lima attached as director. Kelly’s a clever high-concept writer. I don’t really love the films he’s written previously (BLAST FROM THE PAST and PREMONITION), but I can see that he likes to riff off of his high concepts. ENCHANTED has a few inspired moments where it all pays off, but it also misses its fair share of opportunities. The biggest miscalculation in the way it’s scripted is the underdevelopment of Patrick Dempsey’s character. He’s the romantic lead, but he’s a zero in terms of actual character. All the good material goes to Amy Adams as Giselle and James Marsden as Prince Edward. And that’s not a complaint, per se, since Adams and Marsden are both great in pretty much every moment they play. Adams has been revving up to stardom for a while now, with rich dramatic work in films like JUNEBUG and CATCH ME IF YOU CAN, and with appearances on THE OFFICE and in TALLEDEGA NIGHTS showing that she is a sharp comedian as well. Finally, she’s got her star vehicle, her showcase that is going to make her a bankable movie star. Little girls are going to love her, and women are going to find her approachable and real and enormously appealing. She gets every little tic and mannerism just right in playing the live-action version of Giselle. She never exaggerates it too much, but she also never drops the carefully built characterization. She’s not of this world, but the longer she lives in it, the more of it she soaks up. Sure, it’s a riff on what Daryl Hannah did in SPLASH or what Tom Hanks did in BIG, but the success in a performance like this is when the character successfully makes us see things through different eyes. Giselle is so sweet, so unflappable, that she makes New York City feel like a Disney backlot, complete with musical numbers that ably deliver the feel of the early ‘90s hits for the studio. The best is the cleaning number she does in Dempsey’s apartment, but it’s also the one that comes the closest to tipping into full-blown parody. Marsden seems to not only understand that fine line but practically dances on it, daring himself to tip over. This is his second great song-and-dance role this year, along with HAIRSPRAY, and it seems to me like Marsden’s been reborn as a performer. His work in the last few years is the best he’s ever done, and if he’s ever going to get a shot as a real leading man, now’s the moment. He seems to have figured out what it is he loves doing, and ENCHANTED benefits from that new energy of his.

Some of the comedy is forced and broad. Susan Sarandon’s Wicked Witch is sort of phoned in, and barely used until the third act, which would be more fun if the film spent more time laying the groundwork for it earlier. Timothy Spall looks like an animated character anyway, but he struggles with some of the worst stuff in the script in his scenes. Because the bad guys are sort of soft and weakly drawn, the film never really gains any momentum in terms of dramatic tension. Still, that won’t bother most viewers. I think ENCHANTED is just good enough. It’s not the best version anyone could have made of this film, but it’s good enough. I have a feeling this is not only going to be one of the bigger hits of the fall, but that this is not the last time we’ll see these characters. If you want to read something that uses some of these same notions that will blow your mind and that is genuinely innovative, check out the entire run of Bill Willingham’s FABLES. But if what you’re looking for is inoffensive fun that gives you something to do with the family this weekend, ENCHANTED more than fits the bill.

And, hey, watching the exact moment someone goes from working actor to movie star is always fun, so check out Adams here so you can say you were there when it happened.

I’ll have more of my reviews tag-teaming with Capone’s all night long, into the early hours of the holiday. Be back soon.

Drew McWeeny, Los Angeles