Penelope (2006)

If I recall, I added this one to my Netflix queue because of a preview I saw on another movie. It's a cute little romatic dromedy, I think (at least occasionally) hoping to be in the jumpy style of the likes of Beetlejuice, but that might just have been inferred because the "mom" character in both films is played by Catherine O'Hara.

In Penelope, Christina Ricci plays the title character, a girl who is the victim of a generations=-ld curse, and who is born with the features of a pig. The curse can be broken easily enough, but the family's choice has caused Penolope to be raised in isolation. The movie starts as Penolope is a young woman, and the family is seeking to marry her, in part as an attempt to break the curse. After a humorous interlude of scared suitors, one fella, hired to spy on the family by a discredited previous suitor, tickles her fancy, and she embarks on life outside her home.

Reese Witherspoon co-produced the film, and co-stars as Ricci's pal once she's outside the family home. Accepting and barely questioning the ever-present scarf on Ricci's face, hiding her snout. She brings a weird tough-girl role, which is a little bit odd and is never quite fully fleshed out. After a little bit, she becomes just a supporting character, despite her rank at the top of the film's star power tower.

It's a little love story, to be sure. The worst of the curse, in the film anyway, is that Ricci has a big pig snout. It's a chuckle, and interesting tale as she realizes she's just fine, and just has a big nose.