A Simple Wish

“Anabel made a wish. Murray made a mess.”

Anabel Greening (Mara Wilson), eight years old, wishes only that her father Oliver, a cab driver, would land the lead in a Broadway musical. Her wish falls to Murray (Martin Short), a bumbling fairy godmother who has to prove he can do the job, with a broken wand and the witch Claudia (Kathleen Turner) working against him. Michael Ritchie builds the story around a girl and her dad, and the magic mostly serves what she wants for him.