Picking up 5 years after the conclusion of The Princess Diaries Mia is now the crown princess of Genovia, and now that she is 21 she is preparing to take over as Queen from her Grandmother Clarisse. However, Mia’s American heritage is unacceptable to Viscount Mabrey and he challenges Mia’s right o inherit the throne by dredging up a law that states no Queen can be unmarried and his Nephew Nicholas would be the rightful heir if Mia cannot marry. This forces Mia to pursue an arranged marriage in 30 days, and Clarisse invites Nicholas to stay at the palace while Mia plans her wedding to Andrew so that she can keep an eye on any mischief the Viscount may be planning. As usual, Mia manages to cause a lot of trouble, the biggest matter being that she and Nicholas’ tormented relationship slowly beings to become something more as the two fall for each other complicating both her engagement and the plans of the Viscount.
It may be true that since Pretty Woman Gary Marshall uses the same jokes over and over again, but I still find The Princess Diaries 2 to be adorable and charming. It probably helps that Grey’s Anatomy creater Shonda Rhimes wrote the screenplay and while Grey’s may have gone down the tubes, the woman can write great comedic women. I do adore this screenplay and think it is the perfect blend of a traditional Disney film and a romantic comedy.
One of the reasons I have always loved The Princess Diaries is because of the female leads – Anne Hathaway & Julie Andrews. I don’t think you could better match two actresses from different generations. Anne is grace, poise, talent and beauty - exactly what Julie Andrews is. The two play off each other so flawlessly that you would assume that they could possibly be related. Hathaway is perfect for the role of the unassuming princess and at this point in her career I do consider her the heir to the likes of Julies Andrews or Audrey Hepburn.
I do have to say that from the first time I saw this movie one of the big selling points for me was Chris Pine. I liked him before he was Captain Kirk. Pine plays Nicholas as the perfect romantic foil to Mia and I am glad he has gone on since to continue getting progressively larger roles. I cannot wait to see where his career takes him.
The Princess Diaries 2 is actually a film that I enjoy better than the first. Perhaps it’s because I grew up along the same lines as Mia’s character did, in the sense that in 2004 I was only a little older than Mia, and having grown up with Cinderella stories Mia meeting her prince charming did manage to resonate with me. Regardless, the film is funny, well made and an entertaining watch.
Director: Gary Marshall
Writers: Shonda Rhimes
Mia: Anne Hathaway
Queen Clarisse: Julie Andrews
Joe: Hector Elizondo
Viscount Mabrey: John Rhys-Davies
Lily Moscovitz: Heather Matarazzo
Nicholas: Chris Pine
Andrew Jacoby: Callum Blue
Mia Thermopolis: Oh, by the way, I'm getting married!
Lilly Moscovitz: To who?
Mia Thermopolis: I don't know.
4 comments:
You LIKE this movie? Oh dear.
I'm a girl. I'm allowed some cute ones. Besides, pretty much anything with Julia Andrews gets a pass. Woman is screen royalty.
I actually like the first one. I just had a very adverse reaction to the sequel. It just seemed so . . . so . . . bleh, I guess.
I think that you'd actually be very interested to hear about my honor roll of chick flicks. Yes, you heard me right. Adam does indeed have an honor roll of his favorites.
Wow. I feel like that's a blog post in the making. I like so few chick flicks...I think this one has just enough of the Cinderella story to really capture my childhood love of those stories.
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