MovieChat Forums > Penelope (2008) Discussion > I'm sorry but her mother!

I'm sorry but her mother!

posted 13 years ago by samixsaysxhi
4 replies | jump to latest

Her mother was awful! I know this movie tried to paint even the 'villains' mistreating Penelope in a somewhat positive light, but her mom is such a hag to me! Even after Penelope accepts herself and gets a 'normal' nose the mother has to go and be completely superficial again during the one scene that is supposed to redeem her a little bit (if I had only loved you like I should have) by commenting on her nose AGAIN. Just the way her mother treated Penelope throughout the movie, looking as if she found it difficult to look her in the face (the scene at the wedding when Penelope runs and then tells her mother to look at her) it looked as if her mother was inwardly cringing. The mother really bothered me in this movie. I understand she is superficial and wanted her daughter to have a normal life with a normal nose and all that, but my god, she was just selfish and low! I know for a fact my mother would have never treated me that way, no matter how effed up my nose was, as all mothers should do for their kids.

I don't know, it just really bothered me. I did not like the mother/daughter relationship whatsoever. If I were Penelope I would have been like EFF OFF to my parents the second I got my 'normal' nose and was able to move away. I'd never have talked to them again. I'm sorry but they proved how much they did not love her for 20 + years of her life, and to me they didn't deserve her as a daughter.

you are not a beautiful and unique snowflake.

[–] KittyGrimm 13 years ago

*snickers* That's kinda the point. She's an irredeemable character who gets her just desserts in the end. Also, Penelope <i>did</i> have her "Eff off" moment when it turned out that her mother hadn't changed at all and moved out of the house.

---
I can't help being a gorgeous fiend. It's just the card I draw!-Lestat

[–] LitCritChas 11 years ago

This is actually par for the course as far as fairy tales go. Mothers in fairytales always got the bad rap.

Related digression:

The film emulates fairy tales and in all the fairy tales where a "step-mother" is mentioned, in the original pre-Victorian versions of the tales, the step-mother is actually just the mother. The reason they were changed to step-mothers is that when the stories were being written down in the 19th Century, the recorders found out that these stories which they'd solely been collecting for academic preservation were suddenly being purchased and read to children--so the collectors (Grimm especially) heavily edited the stories and re-released them. It was thought that villainous step-mother wouldn't be as traumatizing to children as mothers being villainous. Perault did the same thing centuries earlier when recording Cinderella and most of the French fairy tales.

Another story that got changed: Rapunzel was found out by the witch not because she let her mouth slip, but because she and the prince did it in the tower and she got pregnant.

It's funny, all the blood, gore and violence didn't bother the Grimm brothers at all, but bad mothers and sexual transgressions did... ahh the 19th Century values... ;)

Red Wolf #4

[–] londonviaparis 11 years ago

Ha, actually I thought her mom was superficial, but sort of hilarious. The way the actors played off her portrayal worked really well. After Marie from Everybody Loves Raymond (ugh I hate that show!) no other mother compares!
I love it when Johnny hops over the gate to go back in and explain things to Penelope when they see him with Lemon, and the mom and matchmaker run inside, but the mom knows he is right behind her and ducks like he is going to beat her up, hahaha.

[–] leader (1697) 5 years ago

I loved her melodramatic she was.