Penelope | |
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Directed by | Mark Palansky |
Produced by |
Reese Witherspoon Scott Steindorff Dylan Russell Jennifer Simpson |
Written by | Leslie Caveny |
Starring |
Christina Ricci James McAvoy Catherine O'Hara Peter Dinklage Richard E. Grant Reese Witherspoon |
Music by | Joby Talbot |
Cinematography | Michel Amathieu |
Edited by | Jon Gregory |
Production
company |
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Distributed by |
Momentum Pictures (UK) Summit Entertainment (USA) |
Release date
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Running time
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104 minutes |
Country | United Kingdom United States |
Language | English |
Budget | $15 million |
Box office | $21,156,270 |
Penelope is a 2006 British-American fantasy romantic comedy film directed by Mark Palansky which was first released in 2006 and stars Christina Ricci, James McAvoy, Catherine O'Hara, Peter Dinklage, Richard E. Grant, and Reese Witherspoon.
Penelope Wilhern (Christina Ricci) is a pretty young woman from a wealthy family with all the qualities to make an excellent match for any other well-bred man of her status. What sets her apart is that she has the ears and nose of a pig.
Generations ago, an embittered and vengeful witch (Michael Feast) placed a curse on the Wilhern family after their son had an affair with her daughter, one of the Wilhern servants, and, talked out of marrying her by his arrogant and disapproving family, abandoned her and married someone of his own status. The heartbroken and pregnant servant girl then threw herself off a cliff. Furious, the witch then cursed the Wilherns so that the next daughter to be born into the affluent family would have the face of a pig. For five generations, the Wilherns produced only sons, until Penelope was born, stricken with the curse. It is said that the curse can only be lifted if 'one of her own kind' learns to love her, which her parents interpret as meaning that Penelope must marry a man of .
A tabloid reporter named Lemon (Peter Dinklage) begins stalking the family to get a photograph of the infant Penelope resulting in Penelope's mother Jessica (Catherine O'Hara) blinding his right eye after he breaks into their house. Then Jessica and Franklin (Richard E. Grant) decide to fake their daughter's death and cloister her away in their mansion where Penelope spends her life immersing herself in intellectual pursuits such as literature, horticulture, and music. When Penelope becomes an adult, her parents attempt to introduce her to possible suitors, hoping that one of them will fall in love with her and break the curse, with the help of a matchmaker named Wanda (Ronni Ancona). Unfortunately, every man who lays eyes on her flees in terror, including Edward Humphrey Vanderman III (Simon Woods), a spoiled, arrogant snob who finds her repulsive. Normally, Jessica and Franklin's butler Jake (also Michael Feast) catches them before they leave, but he fails to catch Vanderman.