A Cinderella Story

Where are all the fairy godmothers and their sprinkles of “bibbidi-bobbidi-boo” when you really need them? There’s absolutely no magic or spellbinding romance in this modern live-action version of the oft-told classic. Pop princess Hilary Duff (The Lizzie McGuire Movie) stars as the title high-school senior who is treated like a slave by her Botox-puffed stepmother and self-mongering stepsisters. She has dreams of attending Princeton and hopes that her anonymous cyber-chat suitor (Freaky Friday’s Chad Michael Murray) turns out to be her Prince Charming. The story is shaped mostly for tweener digestion as it progresses toward a school masquerade dance from which our fair damsel flees at midnight, leaving behind her cell phone instead of the traditional glass slipper.