A Cinderella Story

Eight-year-old Samantha "Sam" Montgomery lives in the San Fernando Valley with her widowed father, Harold "Hal" Montgomery, who runs a popular, sports-themed diner. Hal meets and eventually marries a vain, greedy and selfish golddigger, named Fiona, who has spoilt and bratty non-identical twin daughters, named Brianna and Gabriella, from her previous marriage. When the 1994 Northridge earthquake strikes, Hal is killed trying to save Fiona. As he supposedly left no will, Fiona reveals her true colours and receives all of her second husband's belongings.

Eight years later, Sam, now sixteen, is employed at the diner as a janitor to save money for her dream college, Princeton, but is regularly tormented by her stepfamily, who think they are more popular than her despite being regarded as obnoxious. Fiona has transformed Hal's beloved diner into a hot pink 50s-themed eatery and demands that salmon be included in over half of the dishes. To make matters worse, Fiona also uses the inheritance to live as if they are insanely rich, including spending on minor facial and cosmetic surgeries, and even refuses to save water during the ongoing drought. Sam also struggles to fit in at North Valley High School, where head cheerleader and queen bee, Shelby Cummings, also bullies and calls her names, such as "Diner Girl.", along with other members of the popular clique: David, Ryan Hanson, Caitlyn and Madison. Despite how badly she's being treated, Sam confides in her online pen pal "Nomad", who shares her dream to attend Princeton to become a writer, her best friend but outcast, Carter Farrell, and finds comfort in the diner staff, including Rhonda the manager, Eleanor, a waitress and Bobby the chef. "Nomad"'s true identity is Austin Ames, the popular - yet unhappy - quarterback of the school's football team, called "The Fighting Frogs", and Shelby's reluctant boyfriend; he attempts to break up with Shelby who "chooses to ignore that". It turns out that Austin's father, Andy, has arranged for his son to attend the University of Southern California with a football scholarship. "Nomad" proposes that he and Sam meet in person at the school's Halloween dance. Initially reluctant, Sam is convinced by Carter to go to the dance and meet her mysterious online friend.

On the night of the dance, Fiona forces Sam to work the night shift at the diner, then leaves to drive Brianna and Gabriella to the dance. Carter and Rhonda take Sam to find a costume for the dance, but couldn't find anything that suits her until Rhonda comes across a white masquerade mask. Sam, wearing a mask and Rhonda's old, but still beautiful wedding dress, meets "Nomad" at the dance, and is surprised to learn that he is Austin, thus causing an envious Terry, a student who has a crush on Sam, to walk off. After sharing a romantic dance together and before Austin can remove her mask, Sam's cell phone alarm goes off, warning her to return to the diner before Fiona comes back at midnight. She leaves without revealing her identity to Austin, unaware that she's named the homecoming princess along with Austin as the homecoming prince by Mrs. Wells the principal, and drops her phone on her way out. Austin picks it up and begins a search to figure out who his "Cinderella" really is.

Later, Brianna and Gabriella discover Sam's emails to Austin and realize that Sam is "Cinderella". After failing to convince Austin that either one is Cinderella, they later present the emails to Shelby and convince her that Sam tried to steal Austin from her. To retaliate, Shelby, Brianna and Gabriella perform a mean-spirited skit at a school pep rally where the emails are read aloud and Sam's identity is revealed to Austin. Humiliated and upset that Austin did not stand up for her, Sam leaves in tears.

Like Austin, Sam had been accepted to Princeton, only to be duped by Fiona into believing she was rejected, so that Fiona can keep her working as her slave. Sam gives up hope and resides herself to working at the diner forever, but Rhonda convinces Sam to not give up on herself. Soon, Brianna and Gabriella enter the diner and slam the door, causing the wallpaper to tear off, in which they pin the blame on their stepsister. Sam sees her late father's inspirational quote, "Never let the fear of striking out keep you from playing the game", which fills her with confidence. Frustrated with her stepmother's persistent emotional abuse for almost a decade and her schoolwide humiliation, Sam stands up to Fiona, quits her job at the diner and moves out to live with Rhonda. Rhonda and the rest of the diner staff also resign, having only stayed on for Sam's sake after Hal's death, and the disgusted customers also storm out after witnessing everything.

Before a school football game, Sam confronts Austin about his cowardice and lies. Before the final play of the game, he sees Sam leaving the stands and runs to apologize to her, but not before standing up to his father due to not wanting to play football for the rest of his life. She accepts his apology and they share a kiss, much to the dismay of Shelby, Brianna and Gabriella, as rain falls over the drought-plagued valley. Soon after, Sam finds Hal's will hidden in her childhood fairytale book, which stated that all of his money, belongings, the house and diner actually belong to her. Since this leaves her as the rightful and legal owner, Sam sells her stepfamily's fancy cars so that she can pay for the college, and Fiona, who signed the will as a witness but claims to have never seen it before, is arrested by the LAPD and district attorney for financial fraud, swindling her stepdaughter out of her inheritance and for violating child labour laws due to all the long hours she made Sam work at the diner in spite of her being a minor.

Things clear up in San Fernando. Sam's stepsisters retrieve her real acceptance letter to Princeton from the garbage, where Fiona "filed" it. Soon, Fiona and her daughters are made to work at the diner to work off all the money they squandered from Sam to avoid facing time in prison and juvenile hall, and the diner is restored to its former glory before Hal's death by its new owners, Sam and Rhonda. Andy comes to accept his son's desire to attend Princeton and opens up a car wash to pay for it. Carter soon films a commercial for hemorrhoid cream, causing him to become popular and Shelby to fall in love him, but after seeing her true colours at the pep rally, Carter rejects her for Astrid, the high school's goth DJ and announcer. Austin and Sam begin a relationship, after Austin gives Sam back her cell phone, and they both end up driving off to Princeton together.

On Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 12% based on 104 reviews, with an average rating of 3.6/10. The site's critical consensus reads, "An uninspired, generic updating of the classic fairy tale."[3] On Metacritic, the film has a score on 25 out of 100, based on 30 critics, indicating "generally unfavorable reviews".[4] Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "A–" on an A+ to F scale.[5]

Roger Ebert wrote that A Cinderella Story, "is a lame, stupid movie, but Warner Bros. is spending a fortune.. to persuade [young audiences] to see it and recommend it”.[6]

The film was nominated for five Teen Choice Awards at the 2005 ceremony, winning the award for Choice Movie Blush Scene, the same year Duff won the Kids Choice Awards for Favorite Movie Actress.

A Cinderella Story was followed by four direct-to-video sequels, each presenting a separate modern-day version of the Cinderella story: The sequels use the themes and situations which also borrow from the Cinderella tale, but do not contain any characters from the first film. Unlike the first film, the sequels also include musical, dance and holiday event themes.

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• Official website
• A Cinderella Story on IMDb
• A Cinderella Story at the TCM Movie Database
• A Cinderella Story at AllMovie
• A Cinderella Story at Box Office Mojo
• A Cinderella Story at Rotten Tomatoes
• A Cinderella Story at Metacritic