IMDB.COMThe Prince and Me
Directed by: Martha Coolidge
Starring: Julia Stiles, Luke Mably
In theaters April 2
Grade: B-
Since Disney’s debut of “Cinderella,” Hollywood has become obsessed with producing tales of Prince Charming. In the 80s, Eddie Murphy portrayed a rebellious African prince, who travels to Queens, N.Y., in order to find the perfect bride in “Coming to America.” A more modern twist, thanks to the dreamers at Disney, is “The Princess Diaries,” in which the protagonist discovers, in the same week, that she is the sole heir to a European country’s throne and that her best friend’s brother has a crush on her. If you really believe in Prince or Princess Charming or just want to see how the Cinderella fairy tale plays out in the 21st century then “The Prince and Me” is a worthy venture.
“The Prince and Me” is the latest feature film to explore a romantic relationship between a royal and a commoner. Paige Morgan (Stiles) is a talented pre-med student at the University of Wisconsin. She drives a pickup truck and grew up on her family’s dairy farm. On the other hand, Edvard Valdemar (Mably) is the crown prince of Denmark, who races his Lamborghini for kicks. The prince and the American girl cross paths on campus after Edvard decides to travel to the heartland of America to attain both an education and a girl gone wild from Wisconsin, like the infomercial displayed on his Denmark cable. (Although in this day and age, it would be more believable if they met on a reality show.) Eddie, or the prince formerly known as Edvard, changes his name and hides his identity once he reaches the college campus. Needless to say, Paige and Eddie interact, fight, fall in love, milk cows, fight, attend a royal ball and fight. Even though parts of the movie were slow, the ending enables “The Prince and Me” to stand out from the others.
“The Sun itself sees not, till heaven clears.” As a Julia Stiles’ movie, “The Prince and Me” by no coincidence contains many Shakespeare references. The above Shakespeare quote is used as a way for the two characters to bond. Similar to Washington University’s cluster system, the pre-med Paige has to take a Shakespeare class in order to fulfill her requirements. Although she is receiving an “A” in chemistry, Paige is having difficulties with her Shakespeare course, which she is not taking pass/fail. Therefore, the prince steps in and teaches Paige how to read and analyze William Shakespeare. Stiles is no stranger to Shakespeare, being an English literature major at Columbia University; in addition, her career has capitalized on modern teen remakes of Shakespeare’s greatest works. She previously starred in “10 Things I Hate About You,” a spin on the “Taming of the Shrew,” as well as “Othello” and “Hamlet.” In the future, it would be nice to see Stiles break away from this genre in at least some of her projects.
Besides Julia Stiles’ red bob, the only real problem with this film is that it lacked any conflict which needed to be there. Paige easily switches back and forth between her independent standing and her desire to be a “we.” Eddie’s parents are at first not very happy with his choice of a bride, but they quickly change their minds and give him their blessing. Even odder, Eddie’s mother, expectantly, is cruel to her son’s love interest, but then all of a sudden, becomes a role model for her. Like all romantic comedies, “The Prince and Me” has its fair share of breakups and reunions, but they both seem unjustified between Paige and Eddie.
Overall, “The Prince and Me” is a light-hearted film to view, but fails to bring any lasting contribution to the Cinderella archetype. Hopefully, before Hollywood runs out of movie titles with the word “prince” in it or hunky British actor imports, this genre will be trashed and we will all live happily ever after again.