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AT THE MOVIES: A teenager, a makeover and Julie Andrews yield a 'PRINCESS CHARMING' submitted by: Lisa D. source: The Atlanta Journal and Constitution Date: August 3, 2001 By STEVE MURRAY REVIEW "The Princess Diaries" Grade: B Starring Anne Hathaway and Julie Andrews. Directed by Garry Marshall. Rated G. At metro theaters. 1 hour, 55 minutes. The verdict: Gooey, glossy and girly, it's also a sweet and charming Cinderella story. Charm is getting rare at the movies. Go to the multiplex and you can find cellphones caked in spinosaurus poop, actors having a pea-soup puke-fight or a Doberman getting friendly with Billy Crystal's crotch. But charm? It often seems that Hollywood has lost the knack. But here's an exception: "The Princess Diaries" has it by the pumpkinload. Yes, pumpkinload. It's a Cinderella story set in contemporary San Francisco but with its feet planted in the world of fairy tales. That's not a bad thing. We meet shy 15-year-old Mia (Anne Hathaway) during a typical day at school. Frizzy-haired and sporting bristly caterpillar eyebrows, her goal in life is to be invisible. She's pretty successful. "Somebody sat on me again," she tells Lilly (Heather Matarazzo, of "Welcome to the Dollhouse"), her politically outspoken best friend. Like Mia, Lilly is an outsider to the shiny blond clique led by popular students Josh (Erik von Detten) and his girlfriend Lana (singer Mandy Moore). This pecking order takes a somersault when Mia learns that the father she never knew was royalty. And that she is next in line to rule the European principality of Genovia. If, that is, Mia chooses to shoulder the responsibility. And if she can bone up on what it takes to be a princess, via the lessons of her very elegant grandmother, Queen Clarisse Renaldi (Julie Andrews). "You look so young," the queen says on meeting Mia. Mia answers, "You look so . . . clean." True enough. Andrews, the original Eliza Doolittle of Broadway's "My Fair Lady," here gamely plays a female Henry Higgins. She teaches Mia to wave to the little people and ties her to a chair with a Hermes scarf to impress on her granddaughter the proper posture for state dinners. Now, about those eyebrows. . . . Directed by "Pretty Woman's" Garry Marshall, "Princess" gives Mia a Julia Roberts-style makeover, and the camera lavishes the same affection on Hathaway. (Actually the actress is adorable pre-makeover; it takes a little while before you stop missing her original kinky-haired mode.) As it proceeds, the movie deals with useful questions like integrity, loyalty and the dangers of celebrity. Carrying much of the film, the ingratiating Hathaway accounts for much of its charm. Andrews has a fine, slightly self-mocking time as the ladylike royal, and carries off a funny scene involving a trolley full of tourists. She gets support from Marshall regular Hector Elizondo as her chauffeur and tango partner, and there's sharp work from Sandra Oh as Mia's principal, making an obsequious fool of herself around the queen. "Princess Diaries" feels about 10 minutes too long, and could've trimmed some repetitive scenes that have Mia making amends for hurting her friends' feelings. But that's a minor complaint. An anomaly in today's cynical market, the movie is deeply and proudly square. Teenagers already in their Britney-Justin phase may find it eye-rollingly good-girly, but their kid sisters should have a fine time. Site design by: Dolphin Webpage Designs © 1996-2001