Ooh, a beautiful brunette and a handsome Prince who fall in love and want to be together despite coming from two very different worlds. Will and Kate…? Oh, oh right this is a movie that predates all of that.
The Prince and Me follows Julia Stiles as Paige Morgan, a bright, beautiful young woman who is studying to become a doctor and is working at what I suppose could ostensibly be called a college bar to help pay her way through school. Luke Mably plays Edvard ‘Eddie Williams’ of Denmark is the Crown Prince of Denmark who only wants to be treated like a normal young man and not… the next in line to a royal throne. In order to combat this and find out what it is he wants to do with his life, other than rule an entire country of course, Edvard and his manservant go to Wisconsin on the promise of girls going wild. And if you’re one of those who have been duped into thinking that there are hot girls in your area just waiting to talk to you, you know exactly how this goes for him.
Unaccustomed to American culture, as most Americans are to the cultures of others, Edvard must navigate the complicated ways of women who aren’t as he had been promised, as in they aren’t girls and they most certainly aren’t going wild. At the same time Paige, who is studying to become a doctor, is having difficulty with her chemistry class when she is unfortunately paired up with the young man who asked her to go wild for him… What a lovely story to tell the kids one day! Unwilling to give up her dreams, Paige powers through Eddie’s advances and seeming stupidity where college is concerned, and finds herself at a crossroads with something she doesn’t understand and (as most people would probably tell you a class that doesn’t seem to have anything to do with the degree she is seeking) needs Eddie’s help with her Shakespeare studies. In return Paige teaches Eddie how to do laundry and then invites him to her home for thanksgiving…
As this is a romantic movie, they start to realize that they truly have feelings for one another around this point. Coincidentally it is shortly after this that a photographer somehow has managed to stalk Eddie from Denmark to Wisconsin and shows up with a hoard of people who want to get the scoop on the new dish!
The fact that this, in and of itself, could be a single film always makes me a little bit surprised when I remember that there’s at least another forty minutes left. And by a little bit surprised I mean this is how I feel Princess Diaries should have gone before the sequel happened. Actually getting to see the film past what could easily be considered an ending, albeit a downer at that, is a treat in and of itself.
Followed by three direct to dvd sequels with the seeming impossibility of keeping people or even characters for that matter, I’d also like to point out that they’re all good fun. Who needs consistency where actors are concerned? Twilight sure didn’t and we all know how that worked out!
Lloydd Marshall Books 