To set the mood of the "fairytale," the movie begins with a magical kingdom inside a snow globe that's placed on Sam's bedside table. Sam's father is reading her a bedtime story and she asks him if fairy tales come true. He says "No, but dreams come true. Fairy tales are about standing up for what you believe in. This fairytale book contains something very important." This foreshadows the future when Sam is living with Fiona. Sam is living in her fairytale but she has no courage to stand up for herself and what she believes in. Right after her father tells her this, the house begins to shake, and the earthquake begins. The snow globe slowly shimmies towards the edge of the table until it can't hold itself up an longer. It comes tumbling to the ground and within seconds, the snow globe is destroyed and the"kingdom" breaks to bits. This represents how not only Sam's snow globe was destroyed, but her whole life.
The main character is Sam. She is a teenage girl who's life gets turned around when her dad dies in an earthquake. She struggles through her childhood living under the ownership of her evil step mother, Fiona, who takes complete control of her life. When Sam's father dies, he leaves no will and everything goes to Fiona: the diner he used to own, the house, the money, and Sam. Fiona uses Sam as her own personal servant and Sam puts up with it because if she does, Fiona will pay for her to go to Princeton University. Sam wears dark and baggy clothes throughout almost the whole story. She's upset about what she has to live with and isn't h
appy with who she is. But at the end of the movie, once she meets her Prince Charming and goes off to Princeton, she gets her life back. As soon as this happens she was shown wearing a bright, pink outfit, laughing in front of the San Fernando Valley, just like at the beginning of the movie before her dad died and everything was perfect. I think the dark and baggy clothes when she was living with Fiona represented her sadness but by the time the happy ending rolled around, even how she was dressed, along with the music, reflected the mood of the story and Sam's happiness.
appy with who she is. But at the end of the movie, once she meets her Prince Charming and goes off to Princeton, she gets her life back. As soon as this happens she was shown wearing a bright, pink outfit, laughing in front of the San Fernando Valley, just like at the beginning of the movie before her dad died and everything was perfect. I think the dark and baggy clothes when she was living with Fiona represented her sadness but by the time the happy ending rolled around, even how she was dressed, along with the music, reflected the mood of the story and Sam's happiness. I thought that there were only three people in this story who had a positive impact on Sam's life. They were Rhonda, Carter, and Austin.
Rhonda:Since Sam doesn't have a mom, her dad has passed away, and her step mom isn't much of a parent, Rhonda almost takes on the roll of Sam's mom. She works at the diner day and night to keep it afloat, and has only stuck around for so long to look after Sam. When Sam finally builds up her courage and stands up to Fiona, Rhonda takes Sam in and looks after her.
At the beginning of the movie, Sam says "At Hal's [Diner], everyone felt like family." This caught my attention because this was the only family Sam has ever had, and Rhonda was the closest thing to a female role model Sam could get.
Carter:
Carter was Sam's best friend. He was always telling her she needed to just be herself and not worry about what anyone else thinks. Carter was Sam's only friend that was her age in the story, and he always had her back. He brought her to the ball and made sure that she got her chance to meet her prince charming. He was always encouraging her to just tell Austin that she was his Cinderella, but the time was never right.
Austin:
Austin is Sam's Prince Charming. When she finds out that he is the one she has been dying to meet for months, she's disappointed. Being the star of the football team and the most popular boy in school, she assumed he would be another rude and arrogant jock who cared about no one but himself. But once he convinces her to give him a chance, she realizes that he's nothing like what he seems. He writes poetry and hates that he is always surrounded by people who act like someone they're not. He only plays football because his dad makes him and wants him to go pro. But like Sam, he also wants to attend Princeton and he wants to become a writer, not a football player. Austin makes all of Sam's dreams come true, and just like every other typical "Cinderella" story, they live happily ever after.
I found that in this particular story, it wasn't Sam's circumstances that were holding her back, it was the people around her. This is why for Sam it was so important to keep the important people, like Rhonda, Carter and Austin close to her. Fiona, on the other hand, is the stereotypical "bad guy." She's the one that no one likes except for her daughters yet she still thinks everyone loves her. She's full of herself and thinks she is superior to everyone else. For example, the San Fernando Valley is going through a drought, yet Fiona feels that saving water is for poor people so she wastes away water on keeping her lawn green and healthy-looking. Some could argue that Austin at times could be considered a "bad guy," too. For the most part of the story he seems like a jerk. When Sam finally stands up for herself before Austin's big football game, she tells him off by saying "waiting for you is like waiting for rain in this drought: useless and disappointing," then she storms away and takes her seat to watch the game. With 9 seconds left in the game Austin leaves to make it up to Sam, and rain starts to fall and they end up kissing in the rain, like I am convinced must only ever happen in the movies. So by the end of the movie, Austin does finally prove himself and in my opinion he turns from villain to hero.
The use of music in this film helped to set the mood of each scene. At the end of the movie in particular, in the scene at the football game, the song "Hear You Me" is playing which turns the mood to very slow and depressing, because that is the mood of the song. When Austin leaves the game and makes it up to Sam, the song "Friend" starts playing which is a very upbeat song and the mood is very happy and uplifting. The mood of a story can be quickly changed through the use of music. The video below shows how these two songs were used to set the mood in this scene of the movie.
In the end, the fairytale book from the beginning did contain something very, very important, just like Sam's dad had told her minutes before he died. But the book didn't just contain something metaphorically important, there was something literally inside that book that was very important to Sam. She found his hidden will folded up inside the book, with Fiona's signature. Fiona was taken "downtown" by the police and ownership of everything including the house and the diner went to Sam. Sam went off to Princeton with Austin and left Rhonda in charge of the diner, which was restored to it's original look from before Fiona had taken over.
"...And they all lived happily ever after."
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