Ever After: A Cinderella Story

(Twentieth Century Fox)

This revisionist Cinderella tale not only ditches the pumpkin and the mice but swaps the fairy godmother for Leonardo da Vinci. Drew Barrymore's hearth maiden quotes Thomas More, parries like a pirate, and tells her wicked step-relatives (Anjelica Huston, Megan Dodds, and Melanie Lynskey) to screw thee. Alas, the love of a good prince (an unmemorable Dougray Scott) still doesn't come easily for this plucky child of the soot. Barrymore aces her 16th-century elocution, but her vampy magnetism -- always her dominant charm -- is snuffed in this goody-goody role.