Happily, the leads carry the day: James Marsden as a prince of grinning vanity, Susan Sarandon as the wicked stepmother (although the climax turns her into something else, again unnecessarily), and, above all, Amy Adams, who, in the role of a would-be princess, finds true momentum, not just sappiness, in the farce of innocence.

NEWYORKER: Enchanted

In his view, it was because of that nasty struggle that the Grimm tales so often featured a wicked stepmother.

NEWYORKER: Once Upon a Time