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'Princess Diaries' boasts performance by newcomer Hathaway submitted by: Lisa D. source: University Wire Date: August 1, 2001 By Zack Smith, The Technician North Carolina State U., Raleigh, N.C. "The Princess Diaries" is one of those films that you feel guilty for liking, or for that matter, even seeing in the first place (my excuse is that it was a free preview). It's too long, badly plotted and worst of all, features an excruciating musical number from singer Mandy Moore. But it has an endearing sweetness about it, and features an excellent screen debut by an actress named Anne Hathaway, whose sole previous credit is the short-lived Fox series "Get Real." She's so good, one wonders what she could do with a better script. The mismashed plot concerns a San Francisco teen named Mia Thermopolis (Hathaway), a likable, slightly clutzy young woman with no self-confidence and bad hair. Relentlessly tormented by cheerleader Lana (Moore), and hopelessly pining for Lana's brain-dead boyfriend Josh (Erik Von Detten), Mia's life is turned upside-down when she's paid a visit by the grandmother she's never known. Said grandmother (Julie Andrews, pure class as always) reveals that Mia's recently deceased absentee father just happened to be the crown prince of an obscure European country called Genovia, and Mia is now officially the crown princess. Mia doesn't take this revelation very well, but she's soon roped into taking "Princess Lessons" from her grandmother involving etiquette, posture and of course, a makeover showing that Mia sure does clean up real good. Mia's new status quickly complicates her life at both home and school. Josh suddenly finds her irresistible irritating Lana to no end. Mia's best friend Lily (an underused Heather Matarazzo) thinks Mia's attractive new look constitutes "selling out," while Lily's brother Michael (Robert Schwartzmann, brother of "Rushmore" star Jason) silently pines after the oblivious princess. Meanwhile, the grandmother pressures her to make a good impression at an important state dinner, resulting in a series of "I Love Lucy"-like pratfalls. Everything comes crashing together in a climax that requires the princess to get to the ball on time, where a large number of heartfelt confessions are made. The director of "The Princess Diaries" is Gary Marshall, whose best-known film, "Pretty Woman," bears more than a passing resemblance to this one (it even features two of the same supporting players, Hector Elizondo and Larry Miller). Marshall's style of directing mostly resembles a TV-movie, with virtually every scene starting with a girl-band soft-rock song playing over the action (probably related to the fact that Whitney Houston is one of the film's producers). Marshall isn't helped by the paint-by-numbers script from Gina Wendkos ("Coyote Ugly"), which communicates virtually every plot point through subtle expository dialogue like "You like her, huh?". Plot points appear and disappear at random throughout the film, and exist mainly to give the characters something to do while talking (I'm not sure what the point was of Mia working at a wall-climbing center, or of her constantly riding a scooter, a gag that already feels dated). What keeps the film from spinning out of control, though, is the cast, which features very funny performances from Andrews, Elizondo and particularly Hathaway, who is one of those rare actresses who's both attractive and funny. She's very convincing as a girl who isn't comfortable with herself, and actually seems like a gawky, insecure girl trapped in an attractive body, rather than a gorgeous actress trying to play someone without makeup (read: Sandra Bullock in "Miss Congeniality," Rachel Leigh Cook in "She's All That," etc.,etc...). Hathaway has such energy as a performer that she's able to take several nearly unplayable scenes and make them work; when she's stuck in the rain and collapses over sighing "I'm invisible, and I'm wet," it's both funny and oddly poignant. Andrews doesn't have much to do other than react to Hathaway, but she's such a warm, welcome screen presence, it's a shame she's mostly been limited to TV-movies in recent years (a scene where she tries a corndog provides one of the film's biggest laughs). "The Princess Diaries" isn't a great movie, but its heart is in the right place, and the preview audience I saw it with seemed to thoroughly enjoy it. It's a nice, harmless feel-good movie, and it's worth seeing, if only for Hathaway's performance. Even if this film flops, she's going to be around for a while. *** Checking the credits to the film, I noticed that it was based on a novel by Meg Cabot, which intrigued me as I'd never heard of the book. Since I'm always curious about books that get made into movies, I tracked it down (it came out last year and already has a sequel, which suggests that the film rights were purchased before the book was even published), and gave it a quick read-through. The old cliche's true as usual: The book is better than the film. The novel's so different from what's on screen that a more faithful adaptation could probably be made with no one noticing the similarities; aside from being located in New York rather than San Francisco and keeping Mia's father alive (albeit sterile after a bout with testicular cancer, something Disney, who produced the film, probably wasn't wild about), it has a more wry, satirical tone better suited to the story. Cabot has a nice, conversational style of writing (excerpts from the book are online at www.megcabot.com), and peppers the book with acidic pop-cultural references. In the film, Mia's "outing" as a princess simply results in a few scenes of embarrassment at school; the book goes further, having tabloid photographers stalk outside the windows of Mia's classes, while rowdy students throw spitballs back at them, shouting "You killed Princess Di!". Later, Mia's antsy about going to a "Cultural Diversity Dance," which "the Computer Club was protesting because the school refused to recognize the Web as a culture." It's hard to argue with them. Site design by: Dolphin Webpage Designs © 1996-2001