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Hugh Dancy
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There’s no doubt that actor Hugh Dancy has put in some incredible and memorable performances throughout the years. Between his work on movies like Black Hawk Down, The Jane Austen Book Club, Confessions of a Shopaholic, Adam, Martha Marcy May Marlene, and Late Night, and in shows like Daniel Deronda, Elizabeth I, Hannibal, The Path, and Homeland, the British actor has clearly made a lasting mark on the entertainment industry. We won’t be talking about any of those titles today, however. Because today, on Dancy’s 46th year on this green Earth, we are taking the time to shout out and focus on what is arguably the actor’s best work of them all: Ella Enchanted.
For the unenlightened among us, Ella Enchanted is a 2004 fantasy romance film about Ella of Frell (Anne Hathaway), who is under a spell to be constantly obedient, a fact she must hide from her new stepfamily in order to protect the prince of the land, her friend for whom she’s falling. Dancy plays Ella’s love interest, the illustrious Prince “Char” Charmont, who is mostly just seen as the kingdom’s heartthrob and poster child pretty boy until Ella turns his life upside down and helps to shape him up into a better man (which, of course, includes some singing and dancing).
Not only is the movie delightfully cheesy and campy in all the right ways, it is also surprisingly star-studded, featuring the talents of Steve Coogan, Eric Idle, Minnie Driver, Vivica A. Fox, Lucy Punch, Heidi Klum, Jim Carter, and Cary Elwes, in addition to its two main leads, Dancy and Hathaway. Above all, Ella Enchanted is a heartfelt, delightful, and fun twist on the tried-and-true fairy tale genre, and it absolutely holds up today, nearly two decades after its initial release.
The movie’s got fairy godmothers, magic, elves, ogres, talking books, a dastardly villain (with a talking snake, because what villain worth his salt doesn’t have one of those?!), a medieval mall, a giant Heidi Klum, subtle class warfare, and the song “Somebody to Love,” so uh yeah, it kind of has… EVERYTHING YOU’D EVER WANT IN A MOVIE!
So do yourselves a favor and celebrate Dancy’s career and life the right way: by watching the masterpiece that is Ella Enchanted over and over and over again!
