Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #3402 in DVD
• Released on: 2005-03-28
• Rating: Parental Guidance
• Aspect ratio: 1.85:1
• Formats: PAL, Widescreen
• Original language: English
• Subtitled in: Arabic, English, Hebrew
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 91 minutes

Synopsis
Hilary Duff plays Sam, a good-hearted Cinderella stuck in the fairy-tale-gone-wrong atmosphere of modern-day Los Angeles. Enslaved by an evil, BOTOX-junky step-mom (a hilarious Jennifer Coolidge) Sam is forced to scrub floors at her late father's diner, thus earning the eternal disdain of the snooty popular kids in school. Luckily she has a friend in artsy nerd Carter (Dan Byrd), and a text-message romance with some poetic schoolmate she's never met. She also has a fairy godmother in the sweet diner manager (Regina King), who helps Sam get decked out and disguised for the Halloween dance. At the dance, she discovers her prince is one of the popular kids, Austin Ames (Chad Michael Murray). Happily ever after seems like a long shot, though, because Austin is burdened by pressures at school and at home, and Sam can't shake her 'diner girl' inferiority complex. This fairy tale comes with plenty of wit, style, and heart. It moves along too fast to be sappy, and broadly razzes the shallowness of popular kids, their stupid parents, and whiny siblings in a way that should balm the unhealed wounds of anyone who's ever been to high school. Byrd makes a winning and somewhat cool nerd, Murray shows princely posture as the tortured poet-quarterback, and Duff firmly establishes herself as a first-rate young actress with luminous major-league screen presence.

Customer Reviews

Hilary Duff shines as a Cinderella growing up in an unhappy home
This is a "survival story" of a young girl named Samantha Montgomery, a.k.a. Diner Girl (Hilary Duff). After losing her father in an earthquake, she is "forced" to live under the strict control of her stepmother Fiona (Jennifer Coolidge) and stepsisters, Brianna & Gabriella (Madeline Zima & Andrea Avery respectively). Life gets tough for Sam as she has to work at the family diner after school, study to get good grades at school so that she could go to Princeton University, and suffer from constant nagging of Fiona. Thanks to the supportive staff at the diner who owed loyalty to her late father and Samantha than to the "dragon lady" Fiona. Her best friend Carter Farrell (Dan Byrd) is a great help in her life even though he is a geek, and an online buddy named Nomad (Chad Michael Murray) makes her love life interesting. Nomad is actually Austin Ames, the coolest kid in school but she doesn't know that and the Nomad doesn't know that his email-pal is the Diner Girl. When they meet at the Halloween dance in their costumes (against the wishes of Fiona), she comes to know her email-pal is none other than Austin Ames, but he doesn't identify Samantha in her Cinderella costume. Later he finds out the identity of his email-buddy; they split, and later, they make up and end of going to Princeton. The staff at the diner helps her to locate her father's will that shows that she owns everything that belonged to her father.

Hilary Duff has performed brilliantly, and her resemblance to another teenage sensation Miley Cyrus (Hanna Montana) is striking. The movie uses several well known songs that include; "This Will Be (An Everlasting Love)" by Natalie Cole, and "Sympathy" by The Goo Goo Dolls. Several songs beautifully performed by Hilary herself include; "Crash World," "Anywhere but Here, and "Our Lips Are Sealed." This movie is very entertaining and recommended for all members of the family.

1. The Perfect Man [2005]
2. The Lizzie McGuire Movie [2003]
3. Cadet Kelly
4. Material Girls [2006]
5. 1-2-3 DVD : Cheaper By The Dozen [2003]

A pleasant fariy tale for you and your family
I really liked this film. I am a huge fan of Hilary Duff and I've never had a singal movie which I think she is bad in!
I found this movie quite emotional and sad, but then everything turned right. It is about a girl (Duff), whose dad died in a earthquarke and she ended up living with her mean stepmother and horrible sisters. She works hard and obeys her stepmums orders, until one day she can't take it any longer and puts her foot down! You have to see it. iT'S COOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLL !!!!!

Great film
Brilliant film though the plot is very predictable. Both sad and funny. I lent this to three of my friends (all 14 like me) and they loved it to. I would reccomend this to all teenaged girls.