‘Elle: A Modern Cinderella Tale’ Overview

Elle: A Modern Cinderella Tale Movie Poster

 

Title: Elle: A Modern Cinderella Tale

Movie Released on: 2010

Genre: Drama, Family, Fantasy, Teen film

Movie Duration: 1 hour and 30 mins. or 90 mins.

IMDb Rating:  4.4 stars

Plot: 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 voice. Surprised and pleased, 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, donning 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.

Ty is determined to find the girl he met 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)’s help, she reveals herself through the song she performed in the studio. Ty hears her sing, and Elle is viciously insulted by Sensation and Kandi for being an obsessive fan. Instead of supporting them, Ty walks out and comforts the heartbroken Elle and they start dating. 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. They 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 leave before he calls the police. In the process, he also dumps Sensation, and Stephanie is revealed to be bald. Ty rushes to make Elle’s audition and arrives just as she is standing tongue-tied on the stage. He backs her up with a guitar and she blows the judges away by singing “Fairytale”. She is immediately accepted to Berklee and forgives Ty after the performance. Both of them share a long awaited, heart felt kiss, where Elle narrates that fairy tales do exist.

The film ends with colorful credits where “Happily Ever After” by Ashlee Hewitt plays in the background, 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 different pop star, and Kit and Andy were happily together with their own detective agency.

Cast:

• Ashlee Hewitt as Elle Daniels
• Sterling Knight as Ty Parker
• Thomas Calabro as Allen
• Juliette Hing-Lee as Kit
• Brandon Mychal Smith as TJ
• Katherine Bailess as Stephanie
• Kiely Williams as Kandi Kane\Brenda Smirkle
• Shawn-Caulin Young as Andy
• Tyler Nicole as Becky
• Emma Winkler as Jamie
• Lexi DiStefano as Bathroom Girl

 

My Rating:     3.5 stars

Lesson I Learned: Don’t stop believing that your dreams can come true. If something happened bad to your first chance in fulfilling for your dreams, find another opportunity. Don’t give up and lose faith on your dreams. If you lose hope, find strength that can help you regain that optimism and hope that you lost.
You may fall on your first time but stand up again the next time. Never get tired of fulfilling you dreams.
Look at Elle. She lost that hope for sometime then she regained that hope and gave her dream a second chance. Find an inspiration and friends to help and support.
For example, you’re the friend. If your friend loses hope, make them believe that they can do what they want to do. That’s what exactly Kit did as a friend to Elle even if Elle doesn’t fully wan to continue that dream. Be a friend who cares and helps a friend in need and needs help and moral support.
Even if other people don’t like your dream and don’t support you, let them be. It’s your life. Forget the haters. They’re not gonna help. You can use them as inspiration that you can prove them wrong. To make them regret what they were saying about yo before.
Look at the positive side rather than the bad side of situations. Your not going anywhere when you go to the bad side. You can convert the negative effects to something helpful like what I said before.
Have faith and hope. Find an inspiration. Have friends and family to support you. Look on the positive side of the situation. Give your dream chances. Believe that you do it! “Anything is possible if you just believe!”

Where I watched: Elle: A Modern Cinderella Tale on YouTube

References:

– Wikipedia (Elle: A Modern Cinderella Story) (for the cast and plot)

– Google (for the other pics 2-4 and stars)

– IMDb (for the other pic 1 and poster)

Other Pics:

Kit – Elle’s best friend

Other poster of Elle: A Modern Cinderella Tale