Beware the Pig Girl!

In this modern-day fairy tale, Penelope Wilhern (Christina Ricci) is the victim of a curse cast upon her family five generations before her birth. She was born with the face of a pig, and the only way to lift the curse is for her to be "unconditionally accepted by one of her own kind." Her family assumes that to mean that she has to be married to a rich man, and they hire a matchmaker to set her up with eligible bachelors, all of whom run screaming from the house once they see Penelope's face. Tired of being a prisoner in her own house, and rejected by the one man who actually seemed to love her, Penelope breaks free and has adventures in the real world, where she is accepted for her disfigurement and treated as a star. She learns that she alone had the power to break her curse all along, and in the end, she gets her man.

Penelope is a light, funny tale with fantastic appearances by Reese Witherspoon, Catherine O'Hara, and James McAvoy. A quick pace and sharp writing keep the story moving smoothly. It's a classic retelling for the ugly piglet in all of us.