Mannequin: On the Move

Mannequin Mannequin is notionally a romantic comedy in which Andrew McCarthy plays a luckless department-store employee and Kim Cattrall (Sex and the City) is an Egyptian princess reincarnated as a shop-window dummy, who comes to life when she encounters McCarthy, only to revert to mannequin status when anyone else is watching her. With her encouragement, he becomes emboldened in his career as a window decorator as well as falling in love with the princess. James Spader's oily, stammering executive is just one of the many examples of a film that tries way too hard to be funny, the sort of characterization that would be barely adequate for a TV commercial, let alone a 90-minute movie. Still, for fans of Sex and the City who might want to feast upon the spectacle of a younger Kim Cattrall, Mannequin might offer a measure of relief. --David Stubbs Mannequin 2: On the Move Fairy tales can come true, it can happen to you... The lyrics to "Young at Heart" could be the theme song for this, well, enchanting 1991 light teen comedy, a sequel to Mannequin. Kim Cattrall was the store window statue-come-to-life of the first film, and Kristy Swanson, pre-Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and is a natural for this sweet fable of a handsome prince breaking a centuries-old spell that trapped our sweet heroine in plastic. Fans of the more recent Enchanted will find much to like in the story of Jessie (Swanson) who, was cursed back in the old country to be a statue. Then department store employee Jason (William Ragsdale) removes the necklace from the mannequin that had cemented the curse, bringing Jessie back to life in a whole new world, which includes Meshach Taylor, reprising his role from the first film as reliable comic relief. Swanson is charming as the dewy-eyed princess, taking in the modern world alongside her true love, who's adorably bewildered--while slowly, just like audiences, becoming enchanted himself. --A.T. Hurley