With Anne Hathaway continuing to, in my opinion, dominate the big screen (her latest movies include “Mother Mary,” set to release the end of this month, and her epic return with Meryl Streep in “The Devil Wears Prada 2” will follow soon after in May) this felt like the right time to revive my Throwback Thursday reviews.

Hathaway has been in a number of movies, some of which I’ve already reviewed, but I haven’t touched on a slightly lesser known gem: “Ella Enchanted.”

The movie was released in 2004, and right before the sequel to “The Princess Diaries” which rocketed her into a more known sphere.

It centered around Ella of Frell (Hathaway), a young girl who was given “the gift of obedience” by a less-than-stellar fairy, Lucinda Perriweather (Vivica A. Fox), when she’s a baby. This gift from the fairy compels Ella to quite literally follow any orders given to her by anyone.

On her deathbed, Ella’s mother warns her to never tell anyone about this “gift” or she could risk being taken advantage of.

Flash forward a few years and her father, Sir Peter, marries a wealthy socialite, Dame Olga (Joanna Lumley), who brings along with her a daughter, Hattie (Lucy Punch). As you can imagine, this movie blends together a lot of fairy tale tropes including the mean step-mother and horrendous step-sister.

One day, while protesting, Ella meets Prince Char (Hugh Dancy), who invites her to his coronation. Following his father’s death, Char has been guided by his uncle, Sir Edgar (Carey Elwes), who seemingly has pretty bad intentions.

Before Ella can go much further, Hattie learns about her gift and uses it to bully her.

This pushes Ella to finally decide she’s going to find Lucinda and demand she rescind her gift.

What follows is a crazy adventure involving elves who wish to be lawyers, a house fairy’s boyfriend-turned-magic book by accident and many many callbacks to classic fairy tales.

Does Ella manage to lose the gift she was given as an infant? Do she and Prince Char ever meet again?

Well, I’m not telling. If you’re interested you’ll have to watch the movie.

I would definitely recommend it if you have shown even an inkling of interest while reading this review.

Hathaway, as usual, delivers a great performance as the slightly awkward, but well meaning lead. This was a time when that seemed to be the trope she fell into, before breaking into the drama and romance genres a few years later.

“Ella Enchanted” provides a silly, fantastical trip with comedic moments and maybe even a real lesson hidden amongst its over-the-top fairy tale storytelling.

Plus, it’s just fun to know that this same actress would go on to star in blockbusters like “The Devil Wears Prada,” “Interstellar,” “Dark Waters” and “Eileen.”

“Ella Enchanted” is rated PG and is available on Pluto TV, Paramount Plus, Hulu and more.

— — — —

Laura Jameson is Managing Editor of The Express.