The Princess Diaries

The Princess Diaries isn’t so much a modern-day fairy tale as it is a dramatization of every little girl’s dream: to be a princess. The film is directed by Garry Marshall, who specializes in fantasies without consequences. The Princess Diaries is essentially a re-telling of Marshall’s own Pretty Woman, which, in turn, was just a lame updating of Pygmalion.
The best performances in The Princess Diaries border on the low side of mediocre. No one stands out, and some of the actors should be embarrassed. I give Julie Andrews credit for being able to deliver most of her dialogue with a straight face, however, since she is given some of the most amazingly stupid lines she has spoken in her lengthy career. Lead actress Anne Hathaway, making her feature debut, possesses the kind of fresh-faced perkiness that inspires irritation by the time she has smiled once too often. Like Julie Andrews, Hector Elizondo tries to “class up” the picture, and, also like her, he fails. His dialogue isn’t as inane as hers, but he doesn’t shine.
The Princess Diaries is okay entertainment only for the target demographic (girls age 8 to 13). Everyone else will either fall asleep, run screaming from the theater, or go into sugar shock. It is possible to make a movie everyone can enjoy from a fairy tale premise, but you wouldn’t be able to guess that based on the evidence at hand here. Next time I’m slated to see a movie directed by Garry Marshall, maybe I should consume about 15 sugar cubes in preparation.