- From what little we hear of their online conversations, Sam does mention her father is dead, she works for her witchlike stepmother, and is bullied by the popular kids. Austin doesn't think the little orphan girl his girlfriend tortures on a regular basis, in part for being a poor little orphan girl, could possibly be Cinderella, yet is smart enough to get into Princeton?
- TBH , people often ignore their surrounding.......at least the part that they are not focus on. He is smart indeed , he just , like most of us , didn't really pay much attention to "how other people's life are going on" , outside his regular social circle.
- Exactly how is it more dignified to be a gas station attendant than a waitress? Sure, Austin is working for his family...but so is Sam!
- Classism. Austin is richer than Sam and his parents have money. He simply works for some extra cash. Sam however has to work for everything. Or at least that's what it appears to be since she's working so many hours. If someone has to work long hours for most days, the other kids will assume they're poorer and desperate.
- How did Sam suddenly know that Fiona lied about her getting into Princeton in the end? Fiona and her daughters had no reason to tell her the truth.
- The college could have sent her an e-mail or another letter asking if she was going to take her place there. When you get accepted into college you have to register, pay fees and sort accommodation etc. There would likely be more correspondence between Sam and Princeton than just the acceptance letter.
- Considering how quickly Fiona slipped up once confronted about the will, it's equally possible that she mentioned the letter during a later interrogation, or learning that Fiona had lied about the will prompted Sam to double-check regarding Princeton.
- I understand that this movie requires immense suspension of belief but a flimsy party mask preventing Austin from recognizing Sam is really pushing it. She looked hardly any different and that's not even taking into account him having heard her voice!
- Austin didn't know Sam before. The first time he had properly spoken to her was at the dance. And bear in mind it's a darkly lit party with loud music in the background. In the film it's not so evident but in real life those kinds of parties make it hard to properly identify people. If the second time he properly spoke to her was at the Diner, he might not have immediately recognised her voice since the last time they spoke there was music in the background.
- And the whole point of Austin's character is that he's bigoted. Sam straight up tells him in the finale that she was never (emotionally) hiding her true self like he does- the only difference between Sam and Cinderella was that he had preconceived notions about one of them.
- The most Austin has interacted with Sam face to face before this is at the diner with her as waitress and him as customer. How much attention do you pay to the waitress taking your order?
- Cinderella, in this case, has her own spacious fully decorated bedroom, her own computer, her own car, a cell phone, lives in a house in an upper class neighborhood, and goes to a school filled with similarly upper class kids and, therefore, gets a lot of funding for clubs and stuff. Her main source of misery is that she has a steady job in her "wicked" stepmother's cyber cafe. Plus, she's a senior (actually she's a junior she says "she's graduation a year early) in high school and has excellent grades. She would only have to put up with her horrible relatives for a few more months before she undoubtedly goes off to college with a couple of scholarships under her belt! Most other versions of Cinderella would kill for a life like this!
- Truth in Television. The impact of CPS and labor laws mean that a child abuse victim in 1697 (around the time Perrault's Cinderella was written) would be much worse off than one in 2004.
- Her stepmother specifically lied to keep the diner away from her and keep her out of college, and therefore dependent on her. As bad as the other Cinderellas? No. Bad, as compared to the lives of the target audience? Yep.
- Plus, I am pretty certain that the end of the movie said that the stepmother was breaking child labor laws through the terms of her employment to her stepdaughter.
- Sam also has to put up with bullies at school, if that helps. The pep-rally scene implies practically the whole school hates her.
- She had to do (almost, at least) all the chores, and they do live in a big house, in addition to having to work the hours at the diner. And she was being emotionally abused. Having stuff, some of which makes it easier for Fiona to boss her around (the car and phone), doesn't really make up for that.
- She lost her father and was forced to live in an attic. Her stepmother favoured her own two daughters so Sam grew up with no love from her family at all. She had friends at the diner but it's different when you don't have a family. And there's plenty of emotional abuse going on there too. Sam is a teenager after all.
- Probably the bare minimum to give plausible deniability if Sam tried to bring in actual help. Fiona cares about image, even if she's very tacky about it.
- It's either a case of Screw the Rules, I Have Money! type of scenario, the abuse she goes through isn't physical, or both. Truth in TV, more often than not, CPS tends to investigate homes where the circumstances are already bad or could make the overall situation worse and emotional/verbal abuse isn't something that would get CPS to investigate anyway (not in the US, actually).
- How the heck did those cheerleaders not get punished for the pep-rally where they publicly humiliated Sam? Honestly, this really pisses me off.
- In general, bullying in Disney Channel films is inaccurately portrayed. High schoolers in Real Life usually go for more covert tactics such as spreading rumors behind someone's back and excluding from events. Directly teasing and name-calling is more common in elementary and middle school. But because the target audience (preteens who watch Disney Channel) see more direct aggression at their schools, the movie has to show it to be relatable to them. Also they show them getting away with it because kids think teenagers and adults get away with everything.
- It's possible lies were told, a false skit was shown to whoever was supervising, etc. We may never really know.
- Maybe it varies by school (though I doubt it) but wouldn't who ever was in charge of organizing the pep-rally have to supervise what would be shown at said pep-rally? Logically he/she would have to approve everything to make sure it isn't inappropriate. So does this mean a teacher knew they were going to humiliate Sam and just let it happen?
- One teacher is seen looking upset about what is happening (the woman sitting behind Austin) as if she knew someone was being mocked yet at no point did she or any one of the teachers present say anything at all to stop it. They never discipline the girls afterwards when they see they hurt an innocent girl's feelings.
- The skit they do to humiliate Sam is not funny (and not just because we, the audience, sympathize with her). It was painfully unfunny yet everyone is seen dying laughing at it. Then afterwards when it is revealed by Shelby that they are mocking Sam, the entire student body keeps laughing like it's somehow hysterical and even start chanting "DINER GIRL". Why? It's been awhile since I've seen the film but I'm pretty sure that at no point is it established that they all dislike her. She's just an outcast as far as I remember and only Shelby and her minions dislike her because... well... they're horrible. Why is the entire student body suddenly being so cruel to her? It just makes no sense to me.
- If you pay attention to the background characters, a lot of them aren't laughing. The students who are laughing all appear to be from the popular clique, most notably the football players. They just happen to be surrounding Sam and Austin for their reaction shots. A few background characters looked shocked rather than amused, and several of them don't join in with the chanting. It just happens to be that the popular kids are the loudest.
- The faculty might have realized that if they punished Shelby, they would also have to punish Fiona's daughters, and Fiona would then take it out on Sam.
- A deleted scene would have had her pushed into the mud during the big football game at the end of the movie. It's probably karma to see her get humiliated, but it's not like the faculty was involved with that!
- I will admit I haven't seen the entire film in awhile but to my memory other people knew about the abuse Sam was suffering at home. (Please correct me if I'm wrong) Carter, Rhonda, and other minor characters at the diner seem aware of what her home-life is like. So if they all know, why didn't anyone do anything to try and stop? Why didn't anyone call Social Services?
- Social Services tends to not get involved if emotional abuse is happening, and only intervenes if there is physical or sexual abuse or if the child is not being fed, clothed, sheltered or getting medical care.
- Since all Social Services would see would be a teen not getting along with a parent. Now if Fiona had like..slap or pinched Sam somehow.. now maybe that could have been abuse.
- Um, wrong, considering how social services would also notice, y'know, Sam being pressganged by her stepmother into working at her diner as well as actively interfering in her life to keep her from going to Princeton.
- You'd be surprised at the things Social Services would manage to overlook.
- Read above. Sam lives in an attic yes but she still has plenty of stuff to herself. It's not uncommon for teens to help out in family businesses. If social services came around, Fiona could easily make it look like that was all Sam was doing. The situation between Sam and Fiona is abuse but it's not a life threatening problem. Sam's friends at the diner probably didn't report Fiona because...well she's still their boss. They probably like having their jobs and reporting Sam would get them fired or else get Fiona to treat them worse. I know Rhonda would probably want to be able to keep an eye on Sam and protect her from the worst of Fiona's bullying. They also figured that since Sam was going off to college soon, she already had her escape from Fiona.
- So since Sam's father hid his will from Fiona (in the fairytale book), does that mean he realized that Fiona was bad news?
- It's possible. We don't know how long they were married for. He might have seen through her eventually but not want to divorce her for the sake of Sam having a mother figure - and also not wanting to put her or Fiona's daughters through a messy divorce.
- Couldn't Sam just charge the harassing boys extra at the restaurant? I mean, I've been reading about how restaurants give discounts if the patrons were well-behaved, so you'd think she'd add a little extra to their bill for teasing her. I bet Rhonda would've agreed!
- She could've, but then those boys would demand to speak to a manager or employer (Fiona) about unfair charges.
- Did Sam's father really die from part of the house collapsing? If so, wouldn't more of the foundations of the house have come down with it (bringing down the attic/upper levels etc)? We're given no indication of the house being rebuilt and it seems improbable that enough of the house could come down to kill Sam's dad (downstairs) but not enough to kill Sam (upstairs). Also wouldn't Fiona want to—I dunno—move after a death like that?
- We don't know what happened after he leaves the room. A lot of different things could've happened, such as him going outside or going into a part of the house we don't actually see in film. Also, I don't feel Fiona would care much for moving. She was set with his money, which I feel was all she had wanted, and thus wasn't conflicted by guilt to move.
- It's possible that after he left Sam's room, he lost his balance due to tremors and fell down the stairs; really, it's not that hard to explain his death from an earthquake that left the house basically undamaged.
- Agree. With a earthquake happening , it's highly possible for him to just lost balance and break his neck of something.....And , TBH , on second thought , who knows if Fiona is there to "helping" him......
- Why would a school have a dance that goes past midnight.....on a school night?
- The dance was at a local venue, not the school. No way they'd be holding the event past midnight.
- How did Austin not recognize Sam's voice when they had the conversation at the diner? They had a lengthy conversation at the dance.
- Why does Fiona force Sam to work at the diner anyway? It's not like she's short on cash if she owns the place, so is she just doing it to be cruel?
- Short answer , cheap labor and tax.
(Since Fiona is most likely still claiming Sam on the tax form , she can pay Sam less salary (Lower than law requirement), while forge the number on tax (to look like she pay Sam a reasonable number) , and since Sam can't fill her own tax (yet) , she can't really fight back or report Fiona's wrong doing.)
- In the beginning of the film, Sam states she saw Rhonda as a second mother. How come Sam never asked Rhonda to adopt her? Or better yet, how come she never tried to set her dad up with Rhonda? She would’ve been a better stepmom than Fiona.
- At that kind of young age(pre-Fiona era) , she probably didn't thought about this possibility yet.(Rhonda is already like a family member for her , so not necessarily have to be her (by law) step-mom (according to normal child's mind set).And after Fiona came into picture , even if she thought about this concept at this era , it's also too late.(Her dad is already in a relationship). After her dad's passing , it's also not likely for her to ask Rhonda to adopt her , as her "legal Guardian" by law is her dad's spouse(I.E. Fiona) (Basically , Fiona is good at acting like a suitable Guardian in front of people (that has the power to decide who should take care the child)....So , since by law , Sam is not a "orphan" , it's hard to work out a plan to let Rhonda adopt her.)
