Prince And Me

Year: 2004

Grade: C

Country: USA

Director: Coolidge

Review

amazingly enough the first thing that struck me about this film is the fact that it’s made by a capable director. at the beginning of the film we are introduced to julia stiles’ character and the prince who she will eventually fall in love with. they’re both driving down completely different roads, in completely different countries, but the way it’s edited suggests a connection between the two scenes. this is not only true because of the cross cutting, but also because of the fact that you have stiles driving left to right and the prince driving right to left. it’s a small thing, but something that an amateur might not think to do. also, in films like this the tendency is to stay away from shots that are above or below eye-level…except at the end when romances tend to (over)use crane shots. however, there is a scene in the prince’s mansion where he walks into a huge room where his parents are waiting for him. the director uses a low angle shot so we get an idea of the size of the room – we see the huge ceiling and all the artwork and detailing on the walls.

unfortunately the screenplay was your usual girl-can’t-stand-guy-but-learns-to-love-him-and-they-both-change-for-the-better schlock. fortunately there were some moments of comic relief and stiles is a talented enough actress to sell her role to a fair extent. the soundtrack wasn’t as bad as it could have been considering the demographic the film was appealing to. i thought that the ending was a bit long, it felt like it was supposed to end before it did. although i suppose you could say that’s a good thing because it didn’t end with them marrying and living happily ever after. julia stiles hasn’t done a clunker yet.