Moments pages are Spoilers Off. Read only at your own risk! You Have Been Warned.
- Giselle bursting into tears when she learns the meaning of the word "divorce" can become this, especially for audience members who've been through a painful separation. Even if you haven't, she really calls attention to the tragedy of a once-loving relationship dissolving into divorce—and everyone else's cold reaction to her tears really tugs at the heartstrings (in the sense of "Has society truly become so desensitized to this?")
- The sequence is doubly this when you realize that Amy Adams's own parents divorced when she was eleven—potentially giving her tears in this scene a heart-tugging Reality Subtext....
- Call it Affectionate or Indecisive Parody, the scene when Giselle has that dance with Robert is strangely moving. It becomes crushingly sad when she's alone and the disguised Narissa essentially taunts her with the knowledge she's going to marry a man she no longer loves, as a way to convince her to eat an (actually poisoned) apple with the promise that she'll forget this experience and live Happily Ever After. Giselle takes a bite... Of course, this is a Disney movie, and everything will work out, but perhaps it's a testament to how good Amy Adams is that it's a tearjerker anyway.
- The ambiguity of Narissa's wording could also make it so that she knows she'll fall into eternal sleep and it's a sort of suicide.
- It starts getting tragic when Robert started mouthing the chorus of "So Close" in Giselle's ear.
- More than just mouthing...he's singing to her. When you remember his earlier statement that he didn't sing, it gets all the better.
- What really sold it was her expression when she watched Nancy and Robert kiss.
- Compared to her heartbroken hysterics at the divorced couple's meeting, that expression gets even sadder. Finding out that people in love might not want to be together anymore is one thing, but finding out for yourself that sometimes you can't be with the one you love ... watching Giselle quietly fall apart is almost too much to bear.
- After Giselle eats the apple and falls asleep, Robert realizes that True Love's Kiss is the only thing that will wake her up. He steps aside to let Edward do it (and the observant viewer will notice he was just about to move in to kiss her himself for a moment), but it still doesn't work...so both Edward and Nancy tell him that he'll have to do it. And then there's what Robert says right before kissing Giselle.Robert (whispering): Please... don't leave me.
- The look on Nancy's face is equally crushing. She knows it will work, and she knows the implications it has for their relationship. It's heartwarming in the sense that she's willing to step aside without a mote of spite or vindictiveness, but you can see her heart splintering all the while. In fact, watch her in the dancing scene leading up to it - you can see in her face the sad realization that the spark with her and Robert just isn't there anymore.
