I have a special affection for Disney's classic Cinderella (1950), but I acknowledge its main message is problematic, with a female protagonist passively enduring a lifetime of abuse only to be rescued first by magic, then by marriage. I can understand the purpose of a version with a more proactive heroine. Which is what EverAfter attempted to do... except it's garish, tone-deaf and poorly cast. Looking at director Andy Tennant's uncannily bad resume, it's hardly a surprise.Drew Barrymore is appealing in a girl-next-door kind of way but, with her tomboyish look and feel, she comes across as a teenager playing dress-up. Far worse is Dougray Scott as the prince. Scott is a handsome chap, I guess, but there is something cold, almost reptilian about his glare, which made him ideal as the anti-Cruise villain in Mission Impossible 2 - not so much as a romantic lead. Anjelica Huston at least is better cast as the baleful stepmother.Tennant glues scenes to each other with no regard for build-up or coherency. In a twist worthy of a soap opera, the heroine is sold into slavery (?) to some evil ruffian. Once inside his castle, she grabs a sword and orders him to unchain her. You now expect some kind of narrow escape sequence, evading guards and so on... except, the movie just cuts to her walking out of the castle with a satisfied smirk. Wait, what? Did the evil guy turn to stone? Did he live all alone in that huge fortress? It defies not just logic, but also the basic rules of storytelling; it's grotesquely anticlimactic.Even visually, here's an example of how little thought went into EverAfter. During the final confrontation, the stepmother is dressed in the same shade of deep green as the nice stepsister, while the wicked stepsister wears red. It doesn't make sense! You want to VISUALLY ASSOCIATE the two evil characters and make the good one STAND OUT. It may be a nitpick, but the movie is littered with this kind of sloppy choices.The movie features Leonardo da Vinci as a secondary character. The Italian genius has not been lucky as far as his cinematic appearances are concerned: between this, the Bruce Willis bomb Hudson Hawk, a cretinous potboiler like The Da Vinci Code and Paul W. S. Anderson's The Three Musketeers, it's ironic how a man of such legendary intelligence tends to be referenced only by stupid movies. His most enjoyable cameo may be in the comedy Non Ci Resta Che Piangere... where he is portrayed as dumb. Go figure... poor Leonardo.5/10

I've only seen a few Drew Barrymore movies, but this is the best I've ever seen her. She should be given more roles of powerful women: She proves in Ever After that she can handle it. It is Danielle's strength of character; ability and desire to act decisively and to be consistently honest that brings her from a servant/slave of a cold-hearted step mother, to queen. Although this story was modeled on the fairy tale Cinderella, I do not feel that that handicaps or otherwise restrains the movie. Rather, this may be the best feature-length movie based on that fairy tale. Beforehand, I'd only seen Drew in The Wedding Singer (good movie, but she is not given a dynamic part like in Ever After) and Never Been Kissed (I loathe that movie, because, as in The Wedding Singer, she is trapped in the middle of someone else's plans). Drew Barrymore, as Danielle, shows no such timidity or ambiguity in Ever After. It's always good to see Melanie Lynskey, as well.

Every one has heard about this classic Cinderella story.I had read this story in my KG's,but Andy Tennant had done really a great work, to present this story in a different version with no magic and no fairies, rather he is try to depict that this Cinderella is a true story. Movie starts with an old lady, who is narrating this Cinderella story, to some authors who believed that Cinderella is just a story. The way Cinderella character portrayed in this movie is different from the story.Cinderella here likes books, brave, intelligent, innocent and beautiful.Drew Berrymore is just at her best as Cinderella.The inconsistent part is of Leonardo Da Vinci in this movie. The movie is refreshing, and had a new interpretation of Cinderella story. Do watch it.

First of all I would like to say that I am already a massive fan of anything period so that made the movie more enjoyable for me and I have watched this movie a lot of times.I love this movie because I think that adds a twist to a well known and loved fairy-tale I would certainly recommend this movie to everyone and anyone. I especially like the relationship between the two main characters. I found it interesting that they chose to include "Leonardo De vinci" in the movie since he would never naturally be linked to this movie or the original.I also think that each member of the cast was chosen carefully and perfectly to fit each individual role in this outstanding movie.It's a must watch!!!!