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Review by: Jack Foley | Rating:
One
IN REAL-life, Denmark's Crown Prince Frederik, once considered
to be the world's most eligible bachelor, recently tied the knot
with Australian businesswoman, Mary Donaldson, in a ceremony attended
by hundreds of the world's royals.
The union marked something of a fairy-tale come true for Donaldson,
who met the prince four years ago, at a bar, during the Sydney
Olympics.
Sadly, the fairy-tale becomes a nightmare for anyone who goes
to see the film inspired by these events, which has to rate among
the worst examples of Hollywood's penchant for sugar-coated overload.
The Prince and Me isn't so much bad, as terrible - a romantic
comedy that consistently fails to generate laughs, or chemistry,
which also attempts to be much more clever than it really is.
Not even the charisma of its leading lady, Julia Stiles, can
save it from the overlong bore it becomes, due to its laborious
pacing and cliché-ridden script.
The film tells the story of university student, and doctor-in-waiting,
Paige Morgan (Stiles), who vows to let nothing stand in the way
of her dream career, until she meets and unwittingly falls in
love with Luke Mably’s Eddie, a Danish student attempting
to chance his luck with the American ladies.
Unbeknown to Paige, however, Eddie is actually Edvard Valdemar,
the Crown Prince of Denmark, who is reluctant to accept his destiny,
and who has travelled to the US in search of fast cars and even
faster ladies.
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The two initially despise each other,
but slowly begin to form a begrudging respect, so that by the
time his identity becomes revealed by a chasing pack of royal
photographers, both are forced to come to terms with their feelings
for each other, and the sacrifices a relationship may entail.
The Prince and Me is directed by Sex In The City helmer, Martha
Coolidge, and features a cameo from another of the world's most
infamous playboys, Eddie Irvine, which, you would have thought,
may have spiced things up a little.
Sadly, in its desire to appeal to the pre-teen market, the film
has been saddled with a PG certificate and is as sickly sweet
an affair as you could possibly hope to avoid. Had it treated
its audience more as grown-ups, it may have fared better.
As it is, audiences are forced to endure a series of hopelessly
contrived scenarios, all of which are sign-posted miles in advance,
and which come complete with virtually a groan a scene.
Stiles makes the most of her insipid role and actually turns
in a far better performance than her material justifies, but not
even she can make her relationship with Mably's Eddie seem believable,
given his bland turn as a charisma-free playboy, who can't seem
to decide on which accent to keep (be it English or Danish).
Ben Miller crops up as a servant with a penchant for delivering
dead-pan lines, while Edward Fox and Miranda Richardson go through
the motions as royalty, but the overall feeling is best summed
up by the look of constant disbelief etched on Miller’s
face - which frequently borders on disdain.
If fairy-tales are really your thing, then stick to re-runs of
CNN's news coverage of the real Prince Frederik's big day, rather
than wasting your time on this turgid nonsense.
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