Ever After (film)/YMMV

Ever After (1998 film)

• Crazy Awesome: Leonardo da Vinci. Everything he says or does is awesome.

Leonardo da Vinci: "I shall go down in history as the man who opened a door!"

• Moral Event Horizon: After Danielle punches Marguerite for insulting her dead mother, Marguerite steals Danielle's copy of "Utopia", the last thing her father gave her before he died. She gives Danielle a Sadistic Choice: the book gets burned, or Marguerite gets the shoes that belonged to her dead mother, the only memento Danielle has of her. After some thought, she silently hands the shoes over to her. That alone would be pretty rotten, but Marguerite crosses the Moral Event Horizon when she intentionally burns the book anyway just out of spite at Danielle's punching her. Then the step-mother crosses it when she holds a tearful Danielle and forces her to watch the book burn after she tried to save it. After that scene, there was no way either of these characters could gain any sympathy in the eyes of the audience. But Danielle is still whipped afterwards.
  • Rodmilla truly crosses it near the end. Right after Danielle has been rejected and publicly humiliated, the horrible woman comes over and taunts Danielle mercilessly, and when a tearful Danielle begs Rodmilla to tell her if there was ever any love, even for a moment. Rodmilla's response? How could anyone love a pebble in their shoe? And then the bitch doubly crosses it right afterwards by happily selling Danielle into slavery to be possibly raped by Le Pieu! Immediately after saying such a cruel thing to her!
• Special Effects Failure: Da Vinci's "walking on water" scene isn't exactly convincing — it's obvious he's walking on something solid that's just below the water.
• Tear Jerker:
  • This troper always had a hard time getting through Danielle's father's death scene.
  • Maurice's reunion with his wife early in the movie always gets this Troper, for some reason.
  • This troper can't even watch the scene where Danielle's book gets burned.
    • Agreed. The look of absolute anguish on Danielle's face as she has to chose between the shoes (her one gift from her mother, and the only way she can remember her) or her copy of Utopia (her one gift from her father, and the only way she can remember him), and then how broken she looks as she gives up the shoes; only to see Marguerite throw the book into the fire anyway. Barrymore/Danielle gives a heartbreaking scream as she reaches for the book, and then just as the audience feels a Hope Spot, the Baronness restrains Danielle and forces her to watch it burn.
  • The incident at the Masque has always reduced this troper to Inelegant Blubbering.

"DO NOT address me so informal, Madame!"

• • • This scene hits it's lowest note when he belittles her even more.

"And you...are just like THEM [the scheming courtiers]."