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This film starts as Mia (perfectly portrayed by Anne Hathaway) graduates from university. And then, accompanied by the security guard Joe (Hector Elizondo), she flies back to Genovia. As well as studying academically, Mia has been trained to take over as queen, as her grandmother Clarisse (Julie Andrews) wants to retire.
Genovia is a small, loyal (and imaginary) country. It’s supposedly another European microstate, and royalty is very important, with all the pomp of parades. Mia had been reluctant at first, but now she is looking forward to her coronation. However, she discovers a law that states that she can’t be queen unless she’s married. And she has just one month to find someone…
There’s a lot of humour in this film, as well as much that’s thought-provoking. Genovia is evidently quite a patriarchal society, despite having a queen rather than a king. All the government officials are male, and one of them believes that his nephew Nicholas (Chris Pine) should be the next in line for the throne.
Mia meets and dances with a lot of theoretically eligible men at a ball, and feel some rapport with Nicholas, not knowing who he is. When she meets him officially, she is convinced he was fooling her and they have several quite acrimonious encounters when it’s clear that she’s falling for him. But she doesn’t trust him.
She’s shown a series of slides depicting potential husbands around the world, most of whom are unsuitable for one reason or another. But she finds one who has all the right qualifications, and who is quite good-looking too. They both agree that arranged marriages are not ideal, but they get along well enough. And so the wedding is planned…
Despite looking elegant and beautiful most of the time, Mia is still somewhat clumsy. There are some very nicely choreographed scenes where she slips or slides, or drops something. And she pulls the most horrendous faces at times, when she thinks nobody is looking. She and her grandmother have excellent rapport, even when the queen is annoyed with Mia (as happens all too often). And Mia is essentially kind and caring. She’s a good example of a feisty young woman who knows her own mind as well as wanting to follow her destiny and do what she knows to be her duty.
There are some delightful and moving scenes involving children. Mia stops an important procession to talk to some orphaned children, and, later, we see her hosting a party which includes some wonderful sliding on mattresses; even the queen gets involved. And I loved the scene where the queen is persuaded to sing; Julie Andrews had thought she would never sing again after failed throat surgery in 1997.
The climax to the story is well done, and the ending somewhat predictable, but I didn’t mind that at all. The film perfectly fulfilled our wish for something light-hearted and amusing. It’s intended for teenagers so the romance parts are quite low-key. The rating is U, reflecting the lack of any bad language and only the mildest of tension. Having said that, it’s not a film for young children. The theme of trying to find a husband is unlikely to interest anyone under the age of about ten or eleven anyway.
There are quite a few extras; the deleted scenes are introduced by the director, Garry Marshall, whom I’ve seen before doing this kind of thing. And the blooper reel is nicely done, without being repetitive. We watched some of the documentaries too, and found them interesting, but we didn’t see them all.
While the film stands alone, it’s definitely best to have seen the first ‘princess diaries’ film, as it gives so much background. I understand that these films are based on books with the same title, although I haven’t read them.
Recommended.
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