A Cinderella Story (PG, 2004)

In this Cinderella update, high school senior Sam (Hilary Duff) lives in the San Fernando Valley with her mean stepmother, Fiona (Jennifer Coolidge) and stepsisters. After Sam's adored father was killed in an earthquake, Fiona made her sleep in the attic and work in the family business, a diner. Sam dreams of going to Princeton but needs Fiona to pay for it, so she follows orders and takes verbal abuse. Sam gets support from diner manager Rhonda (Regina King) and best friend Carter (Dan Byrd). And she has an online relationship with a boy she met in a chatroom for Princeton hopefuls, unaware that he's Austin Ames, student body president and star quarterback. He does not know she is "Diner Girl" Sam, so unworthy of notice that she is all but invisible except when the cool kids make fun of her. Sam's secret email-pal invites her to meet him on the dance floor at 11, at the Halloween dance. And so begins a magical story about Sam's magical encounter with the prince of her dreams in which she leaves behind...her cell phone.

Girls will love this fresh, funny, and sweet, update of the Cinderella story, and it might win some fans among their older siblings and parents as well. Duff is not an actress but she has a winning personality and she makes a lovely Cinderella, sensitive, smart, honorable, and devoted. She knows what she wants and is willing to sacrifice her present happiness to get it.

The always-welcome Regina King is a pleasure as the godmother-equivalent who provides more than a dress, and Jennifer Coolidge (Best in Show) makes the most of a one-note character as the evil step-mother, especially when explaining that her serene expression is the result of Botox. Austin's efforts to find his Cinderella and Sam's struggles with Fiona go on longer than they should, but there is an old-fashioned happily-ever-after ending for everyone who deserves one, especially the girls in the audience.