Dysenchanted

****

Reviewed by: Martin Gray

Once upon a time there was an encounter group for princesses and sundry storybook heroines suffering post-Happy Ending syndrome.

As we real world folk know, no one's life hits a peak of happiness and stays there. Nope, you have to face what fate throws at you and deal with it - or at least find others in the same position and have a darn good moan, and perhaps even a laugh at it all.

Thus, Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty, Alice, Dorothy and chums swap irritations while their shrink nods. Also along for the ride is New Jersey divorcee Clara, who gets a new perspective on her own unhappiness from the ladies.

The top-notch actresses, mostly familiar TV faces (expect lots of "where's she from, oh yes, 24, aha, CSI!"), while not having huge amounts of dialogue, make the most of Miller's witty script, which grew from her monthly women's poker group.

The 'what happens after the Happy Ever After scenario isn't the most original, with Stephen Sondheim having tackled it in Into the Woods, DC Comics in Fables and so on, but our familiarity with the heroines' hopes and dreams means there's always a chance of resonance. And you'll find it here, in a short which manages to be cute, but not cutesie.

Among those thanked in the closing credits is Jimmy Choo - for glass slippers?

Reviewed on: 20 Sep 2005
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Happy endings take work.

Director: Terri Edda Miller

Writer: Terri Edda Miller

Starring: Laura Kightlinger, Sarah Wynter, Alexis Bledel, James Belushi, K D Aubert, Jaime Bergman, Amy Pietz, Shiva Rose, Jill Small

Year: 2004

Runtime: 8 minutes

Country: USA

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