A Cinderella Story

Eighteen-year-old Samantha "Sam" Montgomery is a waitress at a diner in the San Fernando Valley run by her stepmother, the vain and greedy Fiona; she received ownership of the diner as well as the family inheritance after Sam's widowed father, Harold "Hal", died in the Northridge earthquake eight years before and seemingly left no will. Sam is trying to save money to attend her dream college, Princeton, but is regularly tormented by her stepfamily, which include Fiona and stepdaughter twins Brianna and Gabriella, with Fiona taking Sam's earnings and using the inheritance to spend on luxuries instead of necessities like water. Sam also struggles to fit in at North Valley High School, where she is bullied by the popular clique including head cheerleader and queen bee, Shelby Cummings. At the same time, Sam confides in her online pen pal "Nomad", who shares her dream to attend Princeton to become a writer, her best friend but outcast, Carter Farrell, and finds comfort in the diner staff, including Rhonda the manager, Eleanor, a waitress and Bobby the chef. "Nomad"'s true identity is Austin Ames, the popular yet unhappy quarterback of the school's football team, The Fighting Frogs, and Shelby's boyfriend who he attempts to break up with. His father, Andy, has arranged for his son to attend the University of Southern California with a football scholarship.

"Nomad" and Sam propose to meet at the school's Halloween dance, and she attends wearing a white masquerade mask and wedding dress as "Cinderella." The two share a romantic dance together, but while Sam learns "Nomad" is Austin, the inverse doesn't happen and Sam has to go back to the diner for her midnight shift. She leaves without revealing her identity to Austin, unaware that she's named the homecoming princess along with Austin as the homecoming prince by Mrs. Wells, the principal; she also drops her phone on her way out, which is picked up by Austin. Later, Brianna and Gabriella discover Sam's emails to Austin and realize that Sam is "Cinderella"; after failing to convince Austin that they are "Cinderella", they present the emails to Shelby and convince her that Sam tried to steal Austin from her. To retaliate, Shelby, Brianna and Gabriella perform a mean-spirited skit at a school pep rally, horrifying the school staff as the emails are read aloud and Sam's identity is revealed to Austin. Humiliated and upset that Austin did not stand up for her, Sam leaves in tears.

Like Austin, Sam had been accepted to Princeton, only to be duped by Fiona into believing she was rejected by having a fake rejection letter made in order to keep Sam working at the diner and as her slave. Frustrated with her stepmother's persistent emotional abuse for almost a decade and her school-wide humiliation, Sam stands up to Fiona, quits her job at the diner and moves out to live with Rhonda. Rhonda and the rest of the diner staff also resign, having only stayed for Sam's sake after Hal's death, and the disgusted customers also storm out after witnessing everything.

Before the school's homecoming football game, Sam confronts Austin about his cowardice and lies. Before the final play of the game, he sees Sam leaving the stands and runs to apologize to her, but only after standing up to his father due to not wanting to play football for the rest of his life. She accepts his apology and they share their first kiss, much to the dismay of Shelby, Brianna and Gabriella, as the football team wins. Soon after, Sam finds Hal's will hidden in her childhood fairytale book, which states that all of his money, belongings, the house and diner actually belong to her. Since this leaves her as the rightful and legal owner, Sam sells her stepfamily's possessions for college, and Fiona, who signed the will as a witness but claims to have never seen it before, is arrested by the LAPD and the County district attorney for financial fraud, swindling Sam out of her inheritance and violating child labour laws by having Sam work long hour despite being a minor.

Sam's stepsisters retrieve her real acceptance letter to Princeton from the garbage, where Fiona "filed" it. Soon, Fiona and her daughters are made to work at the diner to work off all the money they stole from Sam over the years as an alternate and well deserved punishment over prison and juvenile hall by the D.A., and the diner is restored to its former glory before Hal's death by its new owners, Sam and Rhonda. Andy comes to accept his son's desire to attend Princeton and creates a promotion for Princeton alumni at his car wash. Carter soon films a commercial for a new acne medication, causing him to become popular and Shelby to fall in love with him, but after seeing her true colors at the pep rally, Carter rejects her for Astrid, the high school's goth DJ and announcer. Austin and Sam begin a relationship, after Austin gives Sam back her cell phone, and they both end up driving off to Princeton together.

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."[3]

A Cinderella Story premiered at Grauman's Chinese Theatre on July 10, 2004.[4] 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).[5]

On Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 12% based on 104 reviews, with an average rating of 3.6/10. The site's critical consensus reads, "An uninspired, generic updating of the classic fairy tale."[6] On Metacritic, the film has a score on 25 out of 100, based on 30 critics, indicating "generally unfavorable reviews".[7] Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "A–" on an A+ to F scale.[8] 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”.[9]

Critics panned the plot as "simple, lazy storytelling"[10] and "a dull rehash of the old girl-meets-boy chestnut."[11] They noted that its attempts to modernize aspects of the source material was 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.[12][11][13] Some particularly felt the use of a perfect teenager as a social reject delegitimized the moral of any average person believing in oneself.[11][13]

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.

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

A Cinderella Story was followed by four direct-to-video sequels, each presenting a separate modern-day version of the Cinderella story: The sequels use the themes and situations which 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.

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• Official website
• A Cinderella Story at IMDb
• A Cinderella Story at the TCM Movie Database
• A Cinderella Story at AllMovie
• A Cinderella Story at Box Office Mojo
• A Cinderella Story at Rotten Tomatoes
• A Cinderella Story at Metacritic