A Cinderella Story
Once upon a time in the San Fernando Valley, there lived a young teenage girl named Sam (Hilary Duff) who lived with her stepmother (Jennifer Coolidge) and her stepsisters. With the passing of her father, Sam worked daily at the restaurant her stepmother inherited while trying to balance the studies necessary to get into Princeton. In her dreams though, it is the thought of ending up with Austin (Chad Michael Murray). Unbeknownst to her, the secret man she has been communicating with has been Austin. When he musters up the courage to ask to meet at the dance, Sam is faced with the choice of defying her stepmom or staying. Ultimately, she goes and has a wonderful time without revealing herself to him. The road soon becomes uphill as the pressure to come clean gets to be too much for Sam.

Two annoyances stick out. First, Sam's mask only covers her eyes and you expect me to believe Austin couldn't pick her out of a crowd the next day? And Sam really didn't have any friends at all, did she? After all, nobody, including Sam, called the phone to see who has it. "A Cinderella Story" though is your by-the-numbers teen romance, straight down to the bitchy jealous former girlfriend and the nerdy friend who sticks by the main character at all times. But forcing upon it the Cinderella storyline actually made it worse off. Duff is obviously talented, as evidenced from her turn as Lizzie McGuire, but she needs to distance herself from fare such as this. 1.5 stars