“The Princess Diaries,” based on the popular book for young adults, manages to wring some originality out of its fairy tale plot.
That compensates for the expected hackneyed qualities in this Cinderella tale of an ordinary teenage girl who becomes royalty — not because of a Prince Charming but thanks to the not-so-gentle persuasion of the original Eliza Doolittle herself, Julie Andrews, whose winning performance here kicks the film’s class quotient up several notches.
Anne Hathaway is 15-year-old Mia, her specs and electroshock hair substituting for a neon sign reading “misfit.” Living in a funky San Francisco house with her artist mother (Caroline Goddall), Mia endures the usual tribulations of high school — she’s a klutz, she’s ignored by the popular set.
But she has a huge safety net in her best friend, Lilly (Heather Matarazzo), a too-cool-for-this-school outsider. “The Princess Diaries” hits its mark with this central buddy relationship, the strength of which allows Mia to figure out her destiny — to rule the tiny country of Genovia, famous, we’re told, for its pears.
Genovia is presided over with panache by Queen Clarisse Renaldi (Andrews), Mia’s grandmother, who descends on San Francisco with the news that Mia is actually a princess and that now, with the death of Mia’s father, Mia ought to get a makeover and leave her old life behind.
Led by the formidable Andrews, all of the supporting players in “The Princess Diaries” are surprisingly multi-dimensional.
Besides Lilly and Mia’s likable ex-hippie mom, there’s Joe (Hector Elizondo), the limo driver and assistant to Queen Clarisse. When Elizondo and Andrews glide across the floor in a spontaneous tango, it’s a sexier scene than adults are likely to find in most other summer movies.
Director Garry Marshall is an old hand at fairy tale fantasy: his “Pretty Woman” twinkled with the dubious message that even hookers can be princesses if the customer/prince is Richard Gere.
In “The Princess Diaries,” it is the throne’s promise of power, responsibility and self-reliance that’s dangled as the reward. While a geeky teenage girl might want some of that, perhaps “The Princess Diaries” is not only a glittery fairy tale but also a bit of a revenge fantasy.
`The Princess Diaries’
(star)(star)(star)
Directed by Garry Marshall; written by Gina Wendkos; photographed by Karl Walter Lindenlaub; edited by Bruce Green; production designed by Mayne Berke; music by John Debney; produced by Whitney Houston, Debra Martin Chase, Mario Iscovich. A Walt Disney Pictures release; opens Friday. Running time: 1:51. MPAA rating: G.
Queen Clarisse ………. Julie Andrews
Mia Thermopolis ……… Anne Hathaway
Joe ………………… Hector Elizondo
Lilly Moscovitz ……… Heather Matarazzo
Lana Thomas …………. Mandy Moore
Mia’s Mom …………… Caroline Goodall
Michael Moscovitz ……. Robert Schwartzman
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Garry Marshall and Anne Hathaway talk about “The Princess Diaries” on “Metromix: The TV Show,” at 7:30 p.m. Friday and 10:30 a.m. Saturday.
![In a wooded clearing in Lake Forest, a team of researchers crouched close to the grass. They watched as hundreds of ants crawled over seeds, sipped sugar water and indulged in a seasonal treat: cicadas. Ants’ foraging activities may seem trivial. But to these scientists, they’re a gateway to unraveling the little-known impact on forest food webs when billions of cicadas emerge from the ground in Illinois. “We’re trying to look at the interconnectedness of all of this,” said researcher Sean B. Menke, an ant expert and biology professor at Lake Forest College. It’s one of the many unknowns surrounding […]](https://www.chicagotribune.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/ctc-l-cicada-food-webs016.jpg?w=525 "In a wooded clearing in Lake Forest, a team of researchers crouched close to the grass. They watched as hundreds of ants crawled over seeds, sipped sugar water and indulged in a seasonal treat: cicadas. Ants’ foraging activities may seem trivial. But to these scientists, they’re a gateway to unraveling the little-known impact on forest food webs when billions of cicadas emerge from the ground in Illinois. “We’re trying to look at the interconnectedness of all of this,” said researcher Sean B. Menke, an ant expert and biology professor at Lake Forest College. It’s one of the many unknowns surrounding […]")
