Chad Michael Murray has spent his profession cementing himself as a romantic main man. In his breakout position as Lucas Scott in One Tree Hill, we noticed him by way of many romantic plotlines. His second-ever film position was because the dreamy Jake reverse Lindsay Lohan in Freaky Friday, a job he is returning to for the upcoming sequel. At the moment, he is starring in Netflix’s current festive rom-com, The Merry Gents, taking part in a small-town carpenter who will get his Magic Mike on. Whereas Murray brings allure and charisma to all these roles, considered one of his earliest motion pictures continues to be his highest romantic flip.

2004’s A Cinderella Story sees Murray play Austin Ames, a highschool quarterback with a hidden ardour for poetry, who’s the key web pen pal of social outcast, Sam (Hilary Duff). The story is a contemporary Cinderella retelling, hitting all the mandatory and anticipated beats of the basic fairytale and inserting them in a 2000s highschool setting. Like motion pictures resembling 10 Issues I Hate About You and She’s All That, A Cinderella Story combines trendy and basic storytelling tropes to create a candy romance. Murray designs a bashful and genuinely charming “prince” who has simple chemistry with Duff. It doesn’t do something progressive with the rom-com style, but it surely doesn’t must, because it thrives on its feel-good nostalgia and showcases Chad Michael Murray’s romantic chops early on in his profession.

‘A Cinderella Story’ Is a Trendy Fairytale Teen Romance

A Cinderella Story is a contemporary fairytale retelling, that includes a masked ball, a fairy godmother within the type of Sam’s longtime supervisor Rhonda (Regina King), and a seek for the glass slipper’s proprietor (solely on this rendition it’s a cellphone that was hooked up to Sam’s ankle). The film opens with an earthquake that kills Sam’s dad (Whip Hubley), leaving her stepmother, Fiona (Jennifer Coolidge in considered one of her most hilarious performances), with sole custody over his diner and, a lot to her dismay, Sam. Fiona offers her little freedom, forcing her to work on the diner exterior of college, incomes the nickname “diner woman” from her classmates.

Sam is remoted, and handled as a social pariah, significantly by the stereotypical imply woman Shelby (Julie Gonzalo) — who occurs to be courting Austin at first of the film. For the movie’s first half, Sam and Austin talk anonymously by way of textual content and e mail. Initially assembly in a chat room for aspiring Princeton College college students, they bond over the need to flee and go to varsity. The film reveals their chemistry by way of this dialogue, with Murray and Duff requested to attach by way of textual content alone. The film instantly reveals Austin’s on-line presence is vastly totally different from how his mates converse to Sam, his phrases and poetry laced with metaphors. Murray’s characterization is surprisingly modest and understated, which we do not usually see for the good-looking, common jock.

Chad Michael Murray Is an Unassuming Prince Charming

Murray reveals the distinction between when Austin talks to Sam on-line when he might be himself and when he is surrounded by his vapid mates. Even within the scenes when Austin would not know Sam’s true id, he and Duff have simple chemistry. His interpretation of Prince Charming is light, however not placid, even when his mates are tormenting fellow college students, he reveals regret. Within the scene the place Sam is serving Austin and his mates on the diner when the remainder of the group do all they will to embarrass Sam, he’s humored by Sam’s remarks again. It’s this softness that makes this film so feel-good.

When Sam attends the Halloween dance and learns Austin’s true id, she expresses that she is aware of precisely who he’s, implicating that even she doesn’t consider he may probably be the soft-spoken boy she spent so lengthy speaking to. This second provides a shift inside the film, as now Sam is aware of Austin’s id, however as she is carrying a masks, Austin doesn’t know Sam’s. The pair share a young trade within the diner, the place Sam nearly confesses that she is his on-line pen pal. On this trade, Murray is candid and open, expressing his dissatisfaction with life attributable to exterior pressures. It makes Austin really feel real and offers him layers that contextually his emotional bond with Sam.

We see Austin on a compelling character arc, as, by the top, he learns to be his genuine self. That is what makes their kiss within the ultimate so particular. After Sam confronts him in entrance of his teammates, he lastly sees the injury his hiding who he’s has completed and stands as much as those that strain him. His public confession of his love for Sam is not simply romantic, it is a signal that he is completed hiding who he actually is. Type, soulful, and charming; Chad Michael Murray gave us the proper 2000s highschool counterpart of a Disney prince.

A Cinderella Story is available for purchase or lease on Amazon.

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