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A Cinderella Story

A Cinderella Story

Comedy · Family · Romance · 2004

Routinely exploited by her wicked stepmother, the downtrodden Samantha Montgomery is excited about the prospect of meeting her Internet beau at the school's Halloween dance.

Movie details

A Cinderella Story

“Once upon a time... can happen any time.”

2004 Comedy · Family · Romance 1h 35m

Critical arithmetic

The consensus, allegedly.

IMDb

5.9 / 10

100.5K votes

Rotten Tomatoes

11 %

Tomatometer

Metacritic

25 / 100

Metascore

TMDB

6.6 / 10

Community rating

External scores via OMDb · CC BY-NC 4.0. Values normalized for display; availability varies by title.

Routinely exploited by her wicked stepmother, the downtrodden Samantha Montgomery is excited about the prospect of meeting her Internet beau at the school's Halloween dance.

CriticWise case file

What this film says about your taste.

Not a recommendation score. A measure of how closely the film’s taste signals resemble yours.

The archetype split

Who fights over A Cinderella Story?

The split comes from the same five-axis model used by the test, not audience ratings or review sentiment.

Taste neighbourhood

Nearby on the taste map.

TMDB supplies the candidates. CriticWise reorders them by craft, strangeness, prestige, emotion, and pace.

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Where it lives

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Names above the title

The people responsible.

Directed by

Mark Rosman

Written by

Leigh Dunlap

Hilary Duff

Hilary Duff

Sam Montgomery

Chad Michael Murray

Chad Michael Murray

Austin Ames

Jennifer Coolidge

Jennifer Coolidge

Fiona

Dan Byrd

Dan Byrd

Carter Farrell

Regina King

Regina King

Rhonda

Julie Gonzalo

Julie Gonzalo

Shelby Cummings

Lin Shaye

Lin Shaye

Mrs. Wells

Court is in session

Put A Cinderella Story on trial.

Two incompatible taste archetypes. One film. Read the arguments, then issue a completely binding cultural ruling.

The defence The Sentimental Softie

“Sincerity is not manipulation.”

The film risks embarrassment to make emotion communal, and that openness is harder than fashionable detachment.

The prosecution The Cool Ironist

“The strings are showing.”

Every cue tells you exactly what to feel and when, leaving sentiment to do the work character should have done.