It's not Penelope's fault she's ... deformed. It's her great-great-grandfather's. He's the aristocrat who forsook the servant girl he loved for a more socially acceptable marriage. To spite him, the girl's mother (a witch) cursed his family, vowing that the first girl born to the Wilhern clan would have the face of a pig. The curse would only be broken when "one of her own kind" saw fit to love her for who she was. Forever.

Unfortunately for Penelope, the Wilherns proceeded to produce a lot of boys—generations of them. Four branches up on the family tree, as the calendar rolls toward the 21st century, Penelope herself arrives and fulfills the old hag's vengeful promise.

Her mother is so taken aback by her daughter's visage that she fakes the infant's death and locks Penelope in her room. There she grows for 18 years, educated and entertained, but totally solitary. When she reaches marrying age, Mom takes the reins again and hires a matchmaker to entice the eligible blue bloods of the city with a sizeable dowry. The bachelors are intrigued ... until they see Penelope, whose face makes them want to jump out of a window. (More than one actually does so.)

Practical and stalwart, Penelope has all but given up hope of marrying. And then Max comes along. Though he's startled by her appearance, he doesn't hightail it out the door or window as all the others have. A tender, tentative friendship begins to grow between them. But just as Penelope is beginning to have hope, Max disappears. It seems there's more to both of them than meets the eye.

AND not forgetting...

James McAvoy!!!

He's soooooo hot in the movie.