Well I have to admit it; after her spectacular performance as Selina Kyle a.k.a. Catwoman I just felt that now would be the time to finally look back to how it all began where many people such as yours truly first saw her in a trailer to this movie and later saw the movie itself in theaters. So without further ado, he's my review for The Princess Diaries.
Plot: Mia is a 15 year old high schooler who lives with her mother in San Francisco. She is generally viewed as invisible socially in school and has trouble when it comes to public speaking. But one day, her grandmother Clarisse, her late-father's mother, comes to visit from the European country of Genovia and tells her that her father was the prince of Genovia and Clarisse is the Queen, making her the princess of Genovia. Mia is shocked and run away from her grandmother and is furious with her mother for not telling her about it. But eventually Clarisse and Mia make an agreement to help Mia train to be a princess before a Genovia annual ball to give her time whether or not to really become a princess.
For the most part, this is an...okay film. I mean yes, usually girly movies like these suck like heck and are only entertaining in the slightest to their primary audience, and...yeah this movie did have a lot of really cheesy moments, the second half is roughly structures like any romantic comedy or something like that, and a couple of odds and ends that gives us the reason for any of us that aren't little girls to not really like these kinds of movies. But this movie to me really stands out because at the very least, it has some decent charm to it. The acting was alright, some of the supporting characters had some cute moments, some of the comedy all around had one or two moments that made the movie pretty fun to watch when I was a kid and while I don't laugh at now, I still like it for just how nicely done some of it was. But I do like that it wasn't trying so hard with throwing us joke after joke or was shoving a lot of romantic moments or anything, it just focuses on what was happening to Mia in a decent, pace that altogether gave us a decent, fun movie that - while girly- can still be a nice movie to enjoy.
Actors/Characters.
Anne Hathaway/Mia: I enjoyed watching Hathaway in this film. She gave us this girl who has this cute personality with her trying to adapt to the whole princess thing while trying to deal with it at school or at home and still having the decision to make as to whether or not be a princess. I agree that most of what I just said was done in a cliche way for the most part, but unlike most actresses around that age when it comes to a girly movie, she still manages to give us a character to care about cliche or not that makes it little wonder that she's gone so much farther to the point of currently being the best Catwoman in a Batman movie, and there's plenty of room for optimism for her upcoming performance as Fantine in Les Miserables.
Julie Andrews/Clarisse: For the most part, there's nothing much to say other then saying that it was Julie Andrews being Julie Andrews just the way we love her. Having a strong confident kind of energy with her smooth and gentle sounding voice and everything. Her dialogue may not be the best kind for her to shine the way most of us know and love her, but she still gave us an enjoyable performance.
Music: Personally, I liked that this movie didn't have much of an original score. In fact, I kind of enjoyed the moments where there was no music at all but just plain dialogue. That kind of helped take some of the slightly more dramatic moments a little more serious. Not spectacular of coarse but nice. As for the songs, I liked that there some songs that (while modernized) were brought into the film such as "Little Bitty Pretty One" and "Stupid Cupid". And as girly as "I"m Supergirl" and "Miracles Happen" were, at least they both were decent songs to remember even now once in a while.
Editing: Most if it was okay, but there where some cuts that didn't make sense. Mostly around the beginning where there's the scene where Mia and her mother are rock climbing and there's random points in the dialogue where they cut to just random things like a rock on the rock climbing all or just most of her mother's body for some reason. Then there's the scene where Paolo is giving Mia her makeover and there's the shot where it's the bottom of the chair and you see the chair spinning around from the reflection of the bottom of it. The editing and music was at the very slow pace that while it made sense as a transition...just felt a little off.
And that's my review for The Princess Diaries. It brings plenty of cliches from the book, but we still get some cute moments and some acting that may not be the greatest but is still enjoyable and all around was a nice way for Anne Hathaway's career to begin.
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