Don't forget to enter the Kiwibox Penelope Contest for your chance to win an autographed movie poster or a scarf just like Penelope's!
The first thing I thought of after reading a preview for Penelope was the Twilight Zone episode in which a young woman with some sort of facial disfiguration has surgery to look normal again. When her bandages are stripped away, she is utterly horrified to discover that she doesn't have a pig nose. As it turns out, everyone in this alternate universe has a pig nose but her. The episode was a clever critique on the way we perceive beauty, and Penelope aims to do the same. (Besides, the film's protagonist would have loved to live in a world of snout-nosed citizens.)
Penelope Wilhern (Christina Ricci) is the victim of a century old curse placed on her wealthy family. Years ago, the Wilherns would not permit their son Ralph to marry a servant girl, just because she was not a blue-blood (a person born into wealth and privilege). An old witch places a curse on the family, proclaiming that the first daughter born to the line would have the face of a pig, and the only way to break the curse would be if she were to marry another blueblood. Easy enough, right?
