Film Review:

The Prince and Me

by Lynn B.

In The Prince and Me, we go to Wisconsin where college coed Paige Morgan (Julia Stiles) worries about getting into med school while, in Denmark, Prince Edvard (Luke Mably) worries about racing his Ferrari and getting home to the castle in time to watch “Girls Gone Wild”! When this fave program indicates that girls in Wisconsin like to flash, Edvard, who is bored silly, decides to take his valet/assistant Soren (Ben Miller) and enroll in an American college as a regular guy named “Eddie”.

Of course Eddie meets Paige and it’s hate at first sight (at least on her part). The two get closer. She helps him with science and he helps her understand Shakespeare. Love follows and he visits her folks on the family dairy farm for Thanksgiving and starts to see what “real life” is all about. Finally, Eddie is unmasked as Prince of Denmark Edvard when the tabloid press catches he and Paige kissing on campus and the pictures go worldwide. A break-up ensues and Eddie learns that his dad will soon die and he’ll have to be King. Will Paige give up her dreams of Med School to follow her heart? Can Denmark have a Doctor/Princess in the royal family?

Cinderella stories and anything about royalty (including the American President and his daughters) are ultra-popular right now. On the surface, The Prince and Me is totally formula. If it weren’t for Julia Stiles’ acting chops, Luke Mably’s charm, the funny acting timing of Ben Miller as Soren, the prince’s valet/assistant and a King and Queen, royally but humanly played by great actors Miranda Richardson and James Fox, this would be a typical soap opera fairy tale except that it’s told from a very feminist perspective.

This Cinderella is a top student determined to be a globe-trotting doctor and, despite the charms of a real prince in her life, she’s not about to give up her dream. The Prince is rather joyless, bored and mechanical as he goes through life with everything handed to him until he learns that all American Girls haven’t “Gone Wild” and might just have a brain in their heads that might take precedent over his offers of life in a castle.

“Prince’s” musical score is fun and the locales are beautiful. From the bucolic Wisconsin dairy farm (shot outside Toronto) to the Danish Castle (shot in the Czech Republic), we are warmly invited into Paige and Edvard’s worlds. Down home scenes like the farm lawn mower races are silly but funny to watch. The fact that we’ve seen a lot of this before and expect the cutesy meeting, the immediate “I hate you” relationship and the inevitable “you lied to me” scene, the film is still a nice tribute to the modern-day young woman. Even if the fairy tale ending stretches credibility, the message is a good one. Girls, go for that cake, grab a fork and at least attempt to eat it too!

Rated PG

Official website: http://www.princeandme.com/