A Cinderella Story

Plot

Samantha "Sam" Montgomery is raised by her widowed father Hal, who runs a diner in the San Fernando Valley. He marries the vain and greedy Fiona, who has two daughters, Brianna and Gabriella. When Sam is nine, Hal dies in the 1994 Northridge earthquake, supposedly without a will, so Fiona inherits everything.

Eight years later, 17-year-old Sam still lives with her stepfamily and there is a drought. She and her best friend, aspiring actor Carter Farrell, are tormented by the popular clique at school, led by head cheerleader Shelby Cummings.

Forced to work at the diner to save money to attend Princeton University, Sam is looked after by longtime manager Rhonda. Sam confides in her online pen pal "Nomad", another student at her school who also aspires to attend Princeton to become a writer. Unbeknownst to Sam, "Nomad" is Austin Ames, the popular but unhappy school quarterback and Shelby's trophy boyfriend, whose father Andy expects to attend USC.

Sam agrees to meet "Nomad" at the school Halloween dance. Austin has broken up with Shelby, although she is in denial. Fiona refuses to give Sam the night off to attend the dance, but Rhonda and Carter intervene. Rhonda gives her a mask and a saved wedding dress to wear as "Cinderella". Dressed as "Prince Charming", Austin reveals to Sam that he is "Nomad" but does not recognize her under her mask, and they share a romantic dance.

A masked Carter makes out with Shelby after defending her from the unwanted advances of Austin's friend, but has to hurry Sam back to the diner before midnight. As they leave, Sam drops her cell phone, which Austin finds. The diner workers stall Fiona and her daughters, allowing Sam to sneak in.

The next day, Austin covers the school in flyers, seeking the mysterious Cinderella's identity, and Shelby cruelly rejects Carter. Austin's friends line up a crowd of girls claiming to be Cinderella, without success. Austin is accepted to Princeton but cannot tell his father, and visits the diner, where Sam almost reveals herself.

Brianna and Gabriella discover Sam's emails with Austin, realizing she is 'Cinderella'. Once each fails to convince Austin that they are Cinderella, they present the emails to Shelby, claiming Sam schemed to steal Austin from her. At the school pep rally, Shelby and the twins perform a humiliating skit exposing Sam as Cinderella. When Austin fails to defend her, she leaves upset.

Intercepting Sam's Princeton acceptance letter, Fiona forges a rejection letter, further disheartening Sam. Just as Rhonda encourages her not to lose hope, the twins enter the diner, slamming the door behind them, causing the diner clock to fall off the wall and exposing a wallpapered-over mural of Hal's motto (never let the fear of striking out keep you from playing the game). Inspired, Sam stands up to Fiona, quits her job, and moves out, leading Rhonda, the other employees and customers to leave too.

Sam moves in with Rhonda and, just before the homecoming game, confronts Austin for his cowardice. Seeing her leaving before the game's last play, Austin turns control of the team over to his friend and teammate Ryan and stands up to his father before running after Sam, with Andy and Shelby calling after him. He apologizes and, as the drought finally ends and it starts to rain, they share their first kiss, much to the twins' and Shelby's dismay.

Later, while packing the last of her things, Sam finds her father's will inside her childhood fairytale book, revealing she inherited everything, including the house and diner. As the rightful owner, Sam sells her stepfamily's cars to pay for college. Fiona claims to have never seen the will before, despite having signed it as a witness, and is arrested for inheritance fraud.

To avoid prison, Fiona arranges with the D.A. to work off her debt to Sam for the diner and for having abused her as a domestic servant and underage employee. Sam now co-owns the diner with Rhonda, while Fiona's daughters, after retrieving Sam's acceptance letter from the trash, also must work with her.

Andy accepts Austin's decision to attend Princeton. Carter lands a commercial and rejects Shelby's advances, opting to date Astrid, the school's goth DJ and announcer. Austin returns Sam's cell phone, and they begin a relationship, driving to Princeton together.

Production

Clifford Werber conceived a modernized adaptation of the Cinderella story due to its long-lasting appeal of being "the ultimate wish-fulfillment fantasy" with "an underlying message of empowerment."

Release

A Cinderella Story premiered at Grauman's Chinese Theatre on July 10, 2004. It premiered in theaters with competition from other products that starred princesses or were fantasy-themed, such as The Prince & Me (2004), Ella Enchanted (2004) and The Princess Diaries 2: Royal Engagement (2004).

Reception

Critical response

Initially panned by critics, the film subsequently developed a cult following. On Rotten Tomatoes, it holds an approval rating of 11% based on 102 reviews, with an average rating of 3.6/10. The website's critical consensus reads, "An uninspired, generic updating of the classic fairy tale." On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score on 25 out of 100, based on 30 critics, indicating "generally unfavorable" reviews. Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "A−" on an A+ to F scale. In 2010, Time named it one of the top 10 worst chick flicks ever made.

Roger Ebert wrote that A Cinderella Story "is a lame, stupid movie, but Warner Bros. is spending a fortune to persuade [young audiences] to see it and recommend it". Other critics panned the plot as "simple, lazy storytelling" and "a dull rehash of the old girl-meets-boy chestnut". They noted that its attempts to modernize aspects of the source material were gimmicky and led to illogical plot elements, such as a cell phone being the film's glass slipper and Sam looking too pretty and cheerful for an outcast. Some particularly felt the use of a perfect teenager as a social reject delegitimized the moral of any average person believing in oneself.

The film was nominated for five Teen Choice Awards at the 2005 ceremony, winning the award for Choice Movie Blush Scene, the same year Duff won the Kids Choice Awards for Favorite Movie Actress.

Box office

In its opening weekend, the film grossed $13,623,350 in 2,625 theaters in the United States and Canada, ranking #4 at the box office, behind I, Robot, Spider-Man 2 and Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy. By the end of its run, A Cinderella Story grossed $51,438,175 domestically and $18,629,734 internationally, totaling $70,067,909 worldwide.

Accolades

The film won and was nominated for a number of awards throughout 2004–2005.

Film series

A Cinderella Story was followed by five direct-to-video films, each presenting a separate modern-day version of the Cinderella story: The sequels use the themes and situations that also borrow from the Cinderella tale, but do not contain any characters from the first film. Unlike the first film, the sequels also include musical, dance and holiday event themes.