Review: The Princess Diaries

Ignore the G rating, Garry Marshall’s latest is about as inappropriate (and dishonest) as they come.

The Princess Diaries
Photo: Walt Disney Pictures

Garry Marshall’s The Princess Diaries is about as dishonest as they come. Despite its San Francisco setting, not a gay man is to be found throughout the film. Mr. Robutusen, the titular princess’s next-door neighbor, may be a soap opera writer and the film’s over-zealous hairstylist may have a penchant for rings, but the characters are strangely desexualized. Surely this was the straw that broke the camel’s back, as said camel (Michael Musto of The Village Voice) was fast asleep about halfway through the film’s media screening. There’s probably a place in hell for cynics like myself, so let The Princess Diaries be my ticket to heaven. Mandy Moore gets ice cream thrown on her dress but Heather Matarazzo (recalling a younger Fairuza Balk) and her mammalian backpack steal every scene they’re in. The film is too long, devoid of Andy Dick, ties itself up too quickly, and proves too obviously that teenage girls are in need of a swift kick in the ass to determine where their true heart lies. But it’s also a sweetly absurd fairy tale that should play better to its demographic than Marshall’s reprehensible Pretty Woman, that little whore-to-riches tale that made Julia Roberts a princess in her own right. Mia (Anne Hathaway), San Francisco teen who discovers her queenly roots, is less naïve than Roberts’s sex worker, so this pill is far easier to swallow, especially when legendary medicine-giver Julie Andrews goes slumming and chows down on a corn dog.

Score: 
 Cast: Julie Andrews, Anne Hathaway, Hector Elizondo, Heather Matarazzo, Mandy Moore, Robert Schwartzman, Terry Wayne  Director: Garry Marshall  Screenwriter: Gina Wendkos  Distributor: Walt Disney Pictures  Running Time: 115 min  Rating: G  Year: 2001  Buy: Video, Soundtrack

Ed Gonzalez

Ed Gonzalez is the co-founder of Slant Magazine. A member of the New York Film Critics Circle, his writing has appeared in The Village Voice, The Los Angeles Times, and other publications.

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