= 2 stars

Starring Julia Stiles, Luke Mably, Miranda Richardson
Directed by Martha Coolidge

The Prince and Me is clear justification for renting certain movies and foregoing them in the theater. I would have been annoyed to pay full ticket price, but as a rental it’s a passable, although sub-par entry in the romantic comedy / coming of age genre.

The best thing about The Prince and Me is Julia Stiles – reliably competent, with a maturity that eludes other actresses her age. She plays the brainy and determined college student Paige Morgan, pursuing her dream of becoming a doctor. Meanwhile, playboy prince Eddie of Denmark (Luke Mably) decides to visit the Wisconsin college Paige attends to see “girls gone wild.” Upon meeting, she rightly finds Eddie ridiculous – but since this is a romantic comedy, falls for him anyhow.

It points problem I find increasingly common in modern romantic comedies – in order to create dramatic tension, the couple – that we all know will get together at some point – must at first seem totally incompatible. Yet somehow, they are brought together through increasingly complex plot contrivances, because – well – that’s what happens in these sorts of movies.

Unfortunately, if the couple seems too incompatible at the onset, it’s never believable that they should be together by film’s end. Paige is just way too brainy, self-assured, and together; quite above the promise of marrying a Prince, who offers her fame, jewelry, and wonderful clothes – all likely quite appealing to the target audience of the film – but not this particular character.

The film portrays Wisconsin in a simplistic light, as a state of polka wedding, hicks, and tractor-racing. A good portion of the film floats by before we see the more romantic location but less accurate portrayal of Denmark.

About the time Paige gets on the plane, I was wondering when these two were going to decide what they predictably do, and when they did, came an odd, seemingly tacked on ending. I was already thinking about the next movie in the DVD pile to watch.

I think a fifteen year old girl might find it fascinating, but only if she hadn’t seen many other films, or was trapped on an airplane on her first trip to Europe, hopefully to meet someone more mesmerizing and worthy than Prince Eddie.

There is a straight to DVD sequel called The Prince and Me 2: The Royal Wedding without Julia Stiles. Yikes. I think I’ll pass.

IMDB: The Prince And Me
Wikipeida: The Prince And Me
Rotten Tomatoes: The Prince And Me 27%

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Posted In: 2 Star Movies, Movies 2 stars, Julia Stiles, Luke Mably, Martha Coolidge, Miranda Richardson

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