|
|
Movie Review: A film fit for 'Princess' wannabes
submitted by: Lisa D.
source: The Boston Herald
Date: August 3, 2001
By JAMES VERNIERE
"The Princess Diaries"
2 1-2 stars (out of four)
The words "royal retainer" take on all new meaning in the Walt Disney Pictures preteen comedy "The Princess Diaries."
No one knows better than Disney that many little girls want to be princesses. From "Snow White" to "The Little Mermaid," Disney is in the princess business. So it was probably inevitable that the studio would team up with director Garry Marshall, famous for "Pretty Woman," his 1990 retelling of the Cinderella story, to make this "Gidget" throwback.
Poor Mia Thermopolis (Anne Hathaway). Not only does her name suggest a Greek city in need of air conditioning, she's big, gawky and bookish with a dark, unruly, curly tangle of hair and eyebrows Frida Kahlo would envy. She's not popular at her high school, where she is the frequent object of ridicule from the school's evil blond cheerleaders headed by the stuck-up Lana (pop star Mandy Moore). It doesn't help that Mia's best friend, Lilly Moscovitz (an adorable Heather Matarazzo), is a hopeless nerd who hosts her own local cable TV talk show.
Before you can say, "Who wants to be a princess," Mia's regal grandmother Queen Clarisse Renaldi (Mary Poppins herself, Julie Andrews) shows up out of the blue, complete with trusted factotum Joe (Hector Elizondo). Queen Clarisse informs Mia that it is time for her to leave San Francisco, where she lives in a renovated firehouse with her free-spirited artist mother (Caroline Goodall), and accept her hereditary title as Princess of Genovia (rhymes with Segovia), a principality north of Spain. Mia's spirited reaction to this shocking announcement is, "Shut up!"
It seems Mom forgot to mention that the recently deceased father Mia never knew was a prince, and I don't mean he was a nice guy.
Based on a novel by Meg Cabot and adapted by Gina Wendkos ("Coyote Ugly"), "The Princess Diaries" is exactly what you expect it to be: cute, sentimental wish-fulfillment for little girls of all ages. The obligatory makeover sequence featuring the obligatory flamboyant hairdresser (an uncredited Larry Miller) is in place, and before you know it - voila! -Mia emerges from her cocoon looking like a million dollars. She looks so great, in fact, that the idea that she is seriously considering to refuse the title becomes an eyeball-roller.
Hathaway certainly is appealing, but you wish she had more edge. As the man who becomes Mia's paternal, worldly wise guru, Elizondo exudes enough sex appeal to make it easy to believe he's also the queen's boy-toy. But a subplot involving Mia's crush on Lana's creepy boyfriend (Erik Von Detten) and her obliviousness to Lilly's sweet, good-looking brother (Robert Schwartzman), who pined for her even before she wore a tiara, is silly beyond belief. If this film had any basis in reality, Mia would end up tooling around Europe in some feckless playboy's Ferrari instead of falling for her high school sweetheart.
(Except for the cliches, "The Princess Diaries" is wholly unobjectionable.)
Site design by: Dolphin Webpage Designs © 1996-2001