A CINDERELLA STORY at HOLLYWOOD TEEN MOVIES

TITLE : A Cinderella Story
YEAR OF RELEASE : 2004
CLASSIFICATION : PG
DIRECTOR : Mark Rosman
STARRING : Hilary Duff, Chad Michael Murray, Brenda Song, Brad Bufanda, Dan Byrd, Madeline Zima, Julie Gonzalo, Jennifer Coolidge, Regina King, Lin Shaye
TAGLINE: Once upon a time... can happen any time.

As fairy tales go, Cinderella must be one of the most told, re-told and re-interpreted of all. A Cinderella Story is an update with a high school setting - complete with mean girls, lean jocks, nice girls and nerds.

The “Cinders” of the story is San Fernando Valley girl, Sam Montgomery (Hilary Duff), who lives with her nice-guy dad (Whip Hubley), the owner of a diner. Making up Sam’s extended family are the employees of the diner who include “fairy godmother”, Rhonda (Regina King). A wicked stepmother enters the story in the shape of buxom, Botox-injected Fiona (the hilarious Jennifer Coolidge), dragging with her the requisite obnoxious stepsisters, Brianna (Madeline Zima - the youngest kid in TV’s The Nanny) and Gabriella (Andrea Avery).

When dad dies, Rhonda inherits everything, including Sam, who is banished to an attic room and relegated to the role of servant. She also works at the diner (now renamed “Fiona’s”) and Fiona makes sure Sam has little time for a social life. Most of the snotty kids at school look down on Sam and dub her “Diner Girl”. Her best friend is aspiring actor, Carter (Austin Ames), whose sense of the dramatic makes him as much of an outsider as Sam is.

Sam’s “prince” is a mystery Internet pen pal whom she has a date to meet at the upcoming school Halloween dance if she can escape from the diner. With Rhonda’s help, she does, and she arrives at the dance wearing a mask and looking sensational. She meets her prince who turns out to be the school’s star quarterback, Austin Ames (Chad Michael Murray). Like Fiona, Austin has dreams of going to Princeton even though his father (Kevin Kilner) has different ideas. Like any real prince, it seems Austin’s future has been already mapped out for him.

To make it back to the diner before Fiona finds out she has gone AWOL, Sam flees the dance, dropping her cell phone rather than losing a glass slipper, and remaining a mystery to the love-struck Austin. Sam is convinced that if Austin finds out that she is “Diner Girl”, he won’t want to know her, so she keeps her identity from him. What she hasn’t anticipated is just how spiteful jealous stepsisters can be and Brianna and Gabriella have just uncovered her secret.