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A Polished 'Princess' submitted by: Lisa D. source: The Baltimore Sun Date: August 3, 2001 There's no glass slipper, but 'Diaries' sparkles from head to toe By Cheryl Lu-Lien Tan In the new Disney movie The Princess Diaries, there's a clumsy girl who becomes an elegant princess, a queen who turns out to be a fairy grandmother of sorts, ball gowns, tiaras and a first kiss in a magical setting. It's hardly groundbreaking stuff for Disney, which has explored the princess paradigm many times over from Cinderella to Beauty and the Beast. But with Julie Andrews in the house, talented newcomer Anne Hathaway in the lead and director Garry Marshall at the helm, Diaries manages to be a modern fairytale that may be predictable in parts but is warm, funny and charming nonetheless. Based on the book of the same title by Meg Cabot, Diaries spins the tale of bespectacled, frizzy-haired Mia Thermopolis (Hathaway), the prototypical high school nerd who's mostly invisible, except for when the prototypical blond, blue-eyed Popular Crowd teases her. (In this case, the Popular Crowd includes pouty teen pop sensation Mandy Moore as a particularly rambunctious cheerleader, so it may be hard for men and boys to empathize with Mia at this point, but try to follow along anyhow.) Mia's life changes when her estranged grandmother (Andrews) surfaces in San Francisco to tell the teen-ager that her late father was Crown Prince of Genovia, a tiny, fictitious European country. Mia has a few weeks to take "princess lessons" from Queen Clarisse and decide whether she wants to move to Genovia and assume her royal duties. There's a stunning makeover, stern lectures on clothing choice and lessons on dance, posture and proper fork usage. And with Hector Elizondo - who memorably coached Julia Roberts on etiquette in Pretty Woman - in the ubiquitous role of Queen Clarisse's head of security, Diaries feels more than a little like Marshall's trademark 1990 film in several scenes. But Marshall, who also directed Runaway Bride, knows how to tell a good fairytale. And in Diaries, he has plenty of help doing it well. Even though it's evident from the first scene that mucho cuteness lurks beneath Hathaway's great ball of hair, she's delightful and displays great comic timing and ability. Andrews is wonderful as always and perfectly cast in her regal role. And Heather Matarazzo, who was amazing in indie flick Welcome to the Dollhouse, serves up funny spunk and sense as Mia's best friend. Sure, Marshall lets some scenes dip into slightly overdone schmaltz, and many of the film's characters - especially the two boys Mia has to choose between - remain woefully one-dimensional. But the film never descends into the cesspool of sappy predictability that plagues many a feel-good flick. And, hey, it's Disney, so a happy, positive fairytale is par for the course. Besides, there can't be too many girl-power films for girls, teens and young women about one of their sisters deciding that she wants to make a change in the world - and not just her hair style. And in one of the summer's few G-rated films, this princess does it all without swearing. Sun score * * * Site design by: Dolphin Webpage Designs © 1996-2001