“The Prince and Me” (Paramount Pictures)
Perhaps if there had never been a “Princess Diaries” movie, a film like “The Prince and Me” would have had more of an impact. But “Diaries” was in this territory first and got the advantage of the first appearance. Still “The Prince And Me” has its charm and should find an audience of young girls who will think it is just great.
In the film Paige (Julia Stiles) is a young woman who is very serious about her college education. She plans to go on to med school and be a physician. Prince Edvard (Luke Mably) of Denmark’s Royal Family is a playboy who doesn’t take much of anything too seriously. He decides to come to America for a year to attend college because he wants to see the wild college girls.
He and his aide, Soren (Ben Miller) end up at the same school Paige attends. He then gets assigned to be her lab partner, so the fates are at work putting them together. He has told Soren to call him Eddie because he doesn’t want anyone to know he is a Prince. Paige thinks he is just an exchange student and falls in love with him without knowing his lineage.
Stiles and Mably are both good in their roles. She is just a plain girl and he is a Prince William looking prince. Their scenes together are romantic and real, and are sure to have little girls going wild with dreams of a prince of their own to come along.
James Fox and Miranda Richardson add to the fun of the film as Eddie’s parents. They make the Royals quite likeable. Miller is a plus as Soren. Some of his scenes are hilarious.
The film is rated PG for mild profanity.
The problem with “The Prince and Me” is that it has a “seen it all before” sense to it. From Grace Kelly to Princess Diana; from “Roman Holiday” to “The Princess Diaries”; we have seen this story over and over. It still has charm but it doesn’t have freshness.
I scored “The Prince and Me” a royal 5 out of 10.
