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Back Shelf Beauties
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The Prince & Me Does every woman really dream of meeting a prince, getting swept off her feet and whisked away to a castle? Paramount hopes some of you do this weekend. Luke Mably stars as Prince Edward - the college age Danish heir to the throne who spends his days racing cars, carousing with hot babes and getting into trouble (which is exactly what I would do if I was good looking, rich and destined to be king. Party on Prince Edward). After watching a Girls Gone Wild-type video about the luscious co-eds of Wisconsin, Prince Edward decides that he wants to go to this magical land of beautiful women who are willing to expose their young, shapely bodies. When he gets there, Edward, posing as regular guy Eddie, meets Paige (Julia Stiles) - a hard working college senior obsessed with getting into medical school. Of course, she thinks he is a big dummy who doesn't take life seriously, which only makes her more attractive to Edward. The chase is on as the Prince tries to conceal his true identity, so he can attempt to live a regular life and see if he can attract a woman who wants him and not his luxurious lifestyle (because, if you have an ace in the hole like, "I'm going to be King", you wouldn't want to use that to attract supermodels. Noooooo, THAT would be wrong.). Can these opposites attract? If they don't, would we have a movie? The Prince & Me is an average, formulaic movie that is full of whimsical charm for the first hour, then goes off in a disastrous direction for the second hour. As you can imagine, the love story is predictable as the two are forced to be lab partners and co-workers, but soon they get to know and appreciate each other, which leads to lots of flirting and gushy moments that love story fans will go ga-ga over. The writing team of Jack Amiel, Michael Begler and Catherine Fugate gives us standard, silly lines like, "chemistry is not just a class", plenty of falling-in-love situations for the young leads and the requisite supporting characters like the best friend who wants Paige to realize that she must loosen up as well as Prince Edward's stuffy butler/handler, Soran (Ben Miller), who provides some laughs and comic relief. None of this is groundbreaking, but it's enjoyable as Mably, Stiles and the rest of the cast bring some talent to the table and win over even the most cynical of moviegoers (that would be me). Mably and Stiles have nice chemistry together, we get to laugh and the love story isn't too over the top with fairy tale fantasy. Sadly, what could have been an acceptable, standard teen love story turns into a mess since The Prince & Me doesn't end with the Prince's big revelation that he is a Prince and has been concealing the truth from Paige the whole time (like that is some horrible revelation. He's a rich, handsome Prince. Shocker! Can't forgive that.). The movie forges ahead with Prince Edward returning to Denmark for an emergency, and Paige forced to decide if she is willing to move to a foreign land and give up her dreams of becoming a doctor if Eddie is love of her life. This whole sub-plot should have been a movie unto itself as Paige tries to ingratiate herself with the royal family, deal with the challenges of being a public figure and wrestle over a choice between love and career. Frankly, this is the same ending we would have faced if the whole going to Denmark sub-plot was not interjected into this movie, so why do it? The second half of the movie destroys The Prince & Me's charm and replaces it with silly fairy tale baloney. The Prince and Me almost does it, but not quite. 2 Waffles (Out Of 4) Copyright 2004 - WaffleMovies.com
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