A Cinderella Story Part 1: The Beginning

Why do we keep coming back to the story of Cinderella. No, really it feels like there’s a new version of Cinderella coming out every few years. the story of a girl forced to be a slave by her wicked step mother and step sisters, until one day a fairy godmother comes along, cleans her up, and gets her to the ball (or dance) so she can fall in love with prince charming, all before midnight. As she rushes out of the dance she looses her shoe (or modern technology) and that’s the only way the prince can find her. He does and they live happily ever. It’s a tale told by books, movies, musicals. The most recent versions being the 2021 movie on Amazon Prime and the new Broadway production by Andrew Lloyd Webber, but we’re not talking about them…today. No what I want to talk about is the 2004 movie Hiliary Duff movie A Cinderella Story, and the fact that there are six of these movies, the latest one coming out this year (2021)…like what the hell. And by the way these movies are connect in anyway despite their titles and that they basically tell the same story. And I need to talk about all of them. So let’s get started with the one that started it all. 

The first A Cinderella Story came out in 2004 and was the only one to be released in theaters. It stared Hiliary Duff as Samantha “Sam,” Montgomery. A young girl enjoying life in California, with her dad, a restaurant owner. One day he meets and falls in love with a woman named Fiona (Jennifer Coolidge), they get married making her Sam’s new step mother, and her daughters Brianna and Gabriella her step sisters. Her father then dies during an earthquake and Fiona forces Sam to move to the attic, and basically become a servant both at the dinar and at home…your Cinderella set up. 

So after that we follow Sam around as she is abused by almost everyone around her, forced to get breakfast for her step family, do a morning shift at the dinar Fiona now owns…ALL BEFORE GOING TO SCHOOL, like…dang. She also gets bullied at school, which is where we get the newest addition to the Cinderella Story…a popular girl character that beats downs our main character. Yeah I don’t get it either. In the original tale the step sisters or ugly step sisters were consider not that attractive..they just thought they were just as good as the upper class, so I guess adding a popular girl character really shows that off. But…it’s just to much, just make the step sisters popular and bullies as well. This also showed me that wow…the early 2000s were the worst. The first reason is the bullying..the main reason Sam is bullied…is because she has a job, and….she doesn’t wear makeup maybe I don’t know, am I putting to much thought into this…hell yes. Anyway she does have one friend in Carter, who we meet when Sam picks him up for school and he is dressed as….a offensive stereotype of a black person (and he’s white). Well anyway he changes back to normal and we also get to me Sam’s other friend, or shall I say we don’t physically meet him as they have only talked through chat and instant messages (memories). This is Nomad, her online pen pal she met through a Princeton chat room (by the way Sam has a dream of attending Princeton thanks to her dad). In reality he is Austin Aims played by Chad Michael Murray. He is the popular football player at Sam’s high school who secretly is a sensitive soul who wants to go to Princeton and become a writer. The two seem to be falling for each other and Austin asks Sam if they can officially meet at that years Halloween dance. 

However Sam’s stepmother forces her to work the night of the dance and after running some errands, will come back to check on the dinar at midnight. Sam is upset that she has to miss the dance including Carter and her “fairy godmother,” Rhonda play by Regina King (Sidebar why the hell is Regina King in this movie, she is WAY to good for this movie). Anyway after some struggle to find a costume, Rhonda gets her a white mask and allows her to wear her old wedding dress. And off to the ball we go..as long as we're back before midnight. So off to the dance we go, Sam arrives and no one recognizes her because….she has a mask on, and is wearing a dress…sure. I’m more surprised that her step sisters don’t recognizes her, the only person who does recognized her is Howard from the Big Bang Theory, who is just here as a red herring, even though we already know who “nomad,” is. But I do think it makes sense that Austin doesn’t recognizes her because it doesn’t seem like these two have talked much in person, or at all. Anyway they talk, ask some….weird questions (Why do we care about how much women eat in this movie), and dance the night away to some early 2000s music. However before they can kiss and before Sam can tell Austin her name, the clock strikes midnight (well 11:45 to be exact), and Sam runs off to find Carter and get back to the dinar, dropping her cell phone on the steps for Austin to find. Cue chase to get home in time, some car hijinks and…making it on time, yeah everything is fine. 

The next morning Sam gets to school and sees a ton of poster put up by Austin looking for his Cinderella. And for about 10 minutes…basically nothing happens. What you really need to know is that Sam decides to hide from Austin, Her stepmom gets her acceptance letter to Princeton and doesn’t want her to go (mainy so she doesn’t loose her servant) and her stepsisters find her IM chats and realize that Sam is Cinderella and try to sabotage her. Well first they try to show Austin that one of them is Sam through proving that they know what they said in the IMs, but when that doesn’t work they go to Austin’s ex aka the popular girl and they all plan to expose Sam. Does this not feel weird, well maybe not. They all see Sam as the dorky girl who doesn’t dress as well as them and (gasp) has a job, and I guess they assume Austin is like them, even though we know he’s not and probably wouldn’t give a shit who his Cinderella is. 

So the popular kids and the step sisters put on this production at the pep rally, basically exposing all of Sam…and Austin’s texts (Hey popular girl who’s name I forgot, why would you think Austin would get back with you after you read his private messages)…maybe she just wanted revenge, I don’t know. Anyway Sam’s sad and goes home only to be told be Fiona that she got rejected by Princeton (This is a fake letter I forgot to mention that Fiona had actually found her acceptance letter in the mail and trashed it because she didn’t want to loose her servant). Cue the third act…sad scene, I know it usually called a third act break up, but no one has gotten together yet and our mains are just sad about life right now. 

So Sam thinks she is going to be stuck as dinar girl for the rest of her life. Her other co workers who have known her since she was a child, are trying to help but it’s not going well. At this point I should mention that there’s been this running gag through out the movie as the entrance door to the dinar closes the guitar on the wall is slowly falling off. It’s here when the stepsisters enter and bang the door shut that the guitar and some of the wallpaper falls off and we seen a part of the wall from when Sam’s dad owned the dinar. It’s a quote that reads “Never let the fear of striking out, keep you from playing the game.” This is the spark that Sam needs to stand up to everyone. She quits her job, moves in with Regina King, and calls out Austin for not letting see the true him. The climax is at the football game, Sam goes with Carter, and right before the game ends, Sam leaves and Austin runs after her and they kiss….Yeah I know there’s like a song and this scene is longer, but really that’s all you need to know. Oh also it starts raining for the first time in a while because there was drought that I forgot to mention. 

So it seems like the movie is about to end, but we still have one more twist before the ending where is everyone montage. We find out that in a book of fairy tales Sam has, was her fathers will. A will that Fiona knew about and even signed as a witness that stated that Sam actually owned the house, and the dinar, and everything else. I have a fair amount of questions about how come a lawyer didn’t stop by after the dad died letting someone know this, or even the fact that he left nothing to his new wife and step kids. Like not even a few bucks. But whatever the movie is almost over, we find Sam’s accepentence letter to Princeton, Fiona has to work at the dinar, Carter gets a commercial, and Sam and Austin go to Princeton together and live happily ever after. 

So that was the first “A Cinderella Story,” and the only one that made it to theaters. Is it good? No, honestly while I remember enjoying this movie when I was younger, watching it now…this movie is so stupid. A ton of adults are basically allowing the main character to be worked to the bone by her step mother which has to be illegal (maybe I don’t study law). The popular kids don’t like Sam because she works and doesn’t care to much about her looks…I guess, I was kind of getting Veronica Mars vibes in the divided between the rich and poor kids, but Veronica Mars well you know, incredibly well written and smart. Honestly this just felt like a chore and I do not recommend it. But is it better then the other movies in this franchise, I don’t know so stay tune to find out.