| Elle: A Modern Cinderella Tale | |
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Promotional Poster |
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| Directed by | Sean Dunson John Dunson |
| Produced by | Oscar Solano Tony Distefano Natalie Bailess Tina Treadwell |
| Written by | Bo Ransdell Ryan Dean Thomas R. Martin |
| Starring | Ashlee Hewitt Sterling Knight Thomas Calabro Kiely Williams Katherine Bailess Tyler Nicole Emma Winkler Juliette Hing Shawn-Caulin Young |
| Distributed by | Frame Of Mind Entertainment |
| Release date(s) | April 2010 (Newport Beach) |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
Elle: A Modern Cinderella Tale is a 2010 family film directed by John and Sean Dunson and starring Ashlee Hewitt and Sterling Knight.[1] The screenplay was written by Bo Ransdell, Ryan Dean and Thomas Martin.
Hewitt stars as Elle Daniels, an intern who dreams of becoming a singer. Hewitt announced to fans she was filming for the movie on June 20th, 2009,[2] while Knight's involvement was confirmed on March 5th, 2010.[3] The film premièred on April 24th, 2010, at the Newport Beach Film Festival.[4] It was released on DVD on April 26th, 2011.[5]
Contents |
Elle Daniels (Ashlee Hewitt) has dreamed of being a famous singer-songwriter for as long as she can remember. On the day of her audition for Berklee, the plane her parents are travelling in crashes. Crushed, Elle moves in with her uncle Allen (Thomas Calabro), who runs a small, independent record company called Spunn Records.
Allen offers Elle a job as an intern and even though this means supporting Spunn's biggest act: a bubblegum pop trio called Sensation, led by the horrendous Stephanie (Katherine Bailess). Elle swallows her pride and tries to forget about her dreams. She becomes good friends with fellow intern Kit (Juliette Hing-Lee), and spends her days phoning radio stations and running errands.
But then Ty Parker (Sterling Knight), a famous pop singer extraordinaire, shows up at Spunn, saying that he needs something different, even if it means his fans shunning him. Allen agrees to set him up on a duet with Kandi Kane, a British pop star with "a million hits online", and Ty agrees to think about, in search of something new and willing to take any risk it takes.
Elle, being convinced by Kit to start singing again, goes to the recording studio and sings "Love is with Me Now", which Ty hears, and mistakes her for the British Kandi Kane, awestruck by her beautiful voice. Starstruck, Elle plays along, leaving at midnight when she receives a text from uncle Allen. After discovering that she accidentally over recorded the Sensation single and feeling guilty for lying to Ty, Elle goes into hiding, doing stupid disguises.
Ty, who is all jumpy about signing Spunn, is also shocked to discover that Kandi is anything but blonde on an awkward meeting set up for the two by Allen, and leaves in a fit of rage, snapping at Allen that this time, it's about what he really wants.
Quite determined to find the girl he met over the radio with the help of TJ (Brandon Mychal Smith) but fails. Stephanie discovers that the song was Elle's and Sensation team up with Kandi to show Elle her place. On Kit's advice, Elle decides to give true love a shot, and with Kit's would-be boyfriend Andy (Shawn Caulin-Young) help, she reveals herself through the song she sung in the studio Ty heard, where she is viciously insulted by Sensation and Kandi for being an obsessive fan, but instead of supporting them,
Ty walks out and comforts the heartbroken Elle and they start dating, and he also convinces her that her talent would never hurt her, and the death of her parents had nothing to do with her. Allen also tells Elle that he admired her parents very much and the song that she accidentally over-recorded was "beautiful".
All seems to be well and Ty convinces Elle to audition for Berklee again and both of them write a song "Fairytale" together until Kandi returns for her claim on the single, and emotionally tortures Ty to leave Elle, or she would sue everyone related to him. Ty calls her a horrible person, but agrees to break up with Elle anyway to protect her.
Heartbroken, Elle misunderstands everything which causes Kit and Andy to carry out an investigation, where they hear the receptionist calling Kandi "Miss Smirkle." Although suspicious, Andy's courage fails, but Kit kisses him for support and he mans up immediately.
Pretending to have a pastry delivery for her by the studio, Andy goes to Kandi, buying Kit time to break into the room, where she is shocked to unearth the fact that Kandi is in fact Brenda Smirkle, an average girl who is using Kandi's identity, and is anything but British.
After getting immense proof on tape, Kit reveals "Brenda's" secret to Allen, who suggests that she leaves before he calls the police. In the process, he also dumps Sensation, and the fact is unearthed that Stephanie is hairless. Ty rushes to make Elle's audition, and reaches just in time where she is standing tongue tied on the stage. He backs her up with a guitar and she blows the judges away by singing "Fairytale", and gets accepted at once. She forgives Ty after the performance and both of them share a long awaited, heart felt kiss, where Elle narrates that fairytales do exist.
The film ends with colourful credits where "Happily Ever After" by Ashlee Hewitt plays in the back ground, indicating what happened to all the main characters. Elle graduated from Berklee, Ty's album went triple Platinum, Brenda (aka Kandi) was pretending to be a Japanese popstar, and Kit and Andy were happily together with their own detective agency.
The film received mixed reviews from audiences. Since its release, 114 users on Rotten Tomatoes have rated the film, giving it an average rating of 2.9 out of 5.[6] On IMDB, the film received an average of 4.5 out of 10 stars, based on a rating by 147 voters.[7] One reviewer noted the plot's similarity to that of the drama film Save The Last Dance[8] while others agreed that the acting was "average" and the plot "predictable", though Sterling Knight and Thomas Colabro were seen as exceptional standouts.[9] The original songs featured in the film, some performed by Hewitt,[10] were generally considered to be its best feature.[11]
In 2010, the film won the Audience Award for Best Family Film at the Newport Beach Film Festival.[12]
A soundtrack for the film has not been physically released yet. However, on February 7th, 2011, a Myspace page for the soundtrack was created,[13] offering fans 31-second previews of 14 songs in total.[14]
The soundtrack contains four original songs by Hewitt (Fairy Tale, Possible, Love Is With Me Now and Happily Ever After),[15] and further features songs by Frequency 5, Katherine Bailess, My Hero, Che'Nelle, Tommy Mac, Pamela Joe and Oranyan Coltrane.[16]
The soundtrack has been released on iTunes.