Penelope - 2006

This is a silly, silly film, and yet enjoyable. A romance, related to the beauty and the beast story. An ugly-looking-witch has cast a curse on a rich, noble family, so when Jessica (Catherine O'Hara) and Franklin (Richard E. Grant) have a baby, Penelope is born with a pig nose.
Now, there's a saying here that translates 'every cockroach is beautiful to his mother', but this Jessica is a posh rich aristocrat not bothered with a true mother's heart.
They know that only 'one of her kind' can break the curse, so Jessica shuts her up inside their big house and never lets her out, never any contact with other people who might see her face, preparing her to be a wife all her life. She believes that only the marriage with another noble will break the curse, so as soon as Penelope (Cristina Ricci) turns eighteen they hire Wanda (Ronni Ancona) to find her a husband. Every time a young man sees her face, they all run away, very fast, but are always followed and forced to sign a paper of confidentiality that forbids them to talk about her. One day, though, they fail to catch Edward (Simon Woods) and the silly boy runs to the police telling of a monster with fangs ; he even goes to the papers, but nobody believes him. Only Lemon (Peter Dinklage) believes him because he once got a glimpse of the baby. Lemon and Edward are determined to get a picture of her, so they hire Max (James McAvoy) who they believe to be a noble with no money, to infiltrate the house and shoot a picture of her. Penelope is very tired of all this, so she appears in front of all of them at once and all the boys run away, all but Max who actually didn't see her, but Penelope doesn't know it. She starts talking to him from another room, so they get to know each other, and to like each other. When he finally sees her, he's surprised but doesn't run away.
It's too late for that, now he knows her and likes her. What's a nose when you really like a person?
She tells him that after the marriage the curse will be broken, so she begs him to marry her, but he says 'I can't' and goes away. Max refuses to sell the picture to Lemon and backs out of the agreement.
Penelope is heartbroken, she liked him. Tired of that life, she covers her face with a big scarf and runs away. She meets Annie (Reese Witherspoon) and they become friends.
Having no money, she sells her picture to Lemon for five thousand dollars. One of the nicest scenes in the film is when Lemon sees the picture, and keeps looking at it: it's just a picture of a normal, pretty girl with a pig nose, not a real monster like Edward had told him. Lemon wouldn't use it, but Edward firmly wants to prove to the world he's not crazy and that the pig girl is real, so her picture goes out.
One day her parents see her and follow her. Penelope runs away and eventually faints after entering the pub of her friends, so Annie and everybody there see her face. Now her secret's out.
Now everyone wants her picture, talk about her, she's a phenomenon, a curiosity, but the only thing that matters to her is that they're not running away, so she doesn't go back home. She wants to live. Edward tells the press she's a monster and that she should be locked up so his father, to save the family's image, forces him to propose to her. Penelope's mother forces her to accept. Max still thinks of her, but does nothing to stop it and we understand why when Lemon discovers he's actually Johnny: he's not noble at all, so he's not able to break the curse. The day of the marriage Penelope says No instead of I do and runs to her room. Jessica follows, remembering her that this is her chance for a new life and a new her, but Penelope yells that she doesn't want a new her, she likes herself the way she is, and thus the curse is broken! There. If only Jessica had loved her for what she was she would have broken it a long time ago. Penelope doesn't tell anyone; she goes out to live a new life, with a real job, until Halloween comes and "Penelope's pig mask" is the most popular, so she wears one and goes to find Johnny. When he realizes she's Penelope he kisses her and tells her he cannot break her curse but then she takes off the mask. He backs down as he had done the first time, at seeing her different, but "it's still me" and they kiss again and live happily ever after :-)
The witch now goes away (she had lived there disguised as their butler); before going she does the world a favor and takes away Jessica's voice :-) See, a silly but cute fairytale. Johnny and Penelope's kiss was a nice kiss, despite the pig mask on her face :-)
I liked it a lot. In the movie I recognized Russell Brand in a small role and also Burn Gorman from Torchwood.