Plot: What’s it about?
“The Prince & Me” doesn’t break any new ground. I was watching the trailer, which Paramount actually put on the disc, and felt that I didn’t really need to watch the movie. Trailers are notorious for giving away the plot, even though the premise is to entice the viewer to watch the movie. After the ending credits rolled, the trailer indeed did give away the movie. It left very little to the imagination and I felt robbed. Maybe this is why Paramount doesn’t include trailers on most of their DVD’s? Or maybe people like me want to get a feel for how the movie will be and watch the trailer first. Regardless of motives, I had to watch the movie in order to do this review. Now I’ll preface this by saying that I can’t tell half of young Hollywood apart anymore. Kate Bosworth, Hilary Duff, Mandy Moore and now Julia Stiles have all played almost the same part. Stiles, I’m a fan of, though as I thought she was beyond this point in her career. She has the presence that an actress twice her age might possess and having her in this movie just seems…odd.
Stiles plays Paige, a Wisconsin school girl known as the only unengaged girl in town. She’s a student studying Biochemistry and comes from an organic dairy farm. Enter Prince Edvard (Luke Malby from “28 Days Later”), the Prince of Denmark who has come to America (and Wisconsin in particular) to escape the paparazzi and because he’s seen that Wisconsin schoolgirls flash their breasts for cameras. When he finds out that this isn’t the norm, the story starts to unfold. He’s cut off from his allowance and thus forced to get a job, coincidentally enough, in the same cafeteria in which Paige works. They clash at first, but opposites attract. Naturally he doesn’t announce that he’s a Prince, but we know she’ll find out (or at least I did because I watched the damn trailer). She does and she’s angry about it. He flees back to Denmark and she follows. Whatever will happen next?
This type of movie has been done so many times before, lastly in “Win a Date With Tad Hamilton!” in which a small town girl forces a movie star to take a good look at himself and fall in love. Director Martha Coolidge is a veteran of Hollywood and knows how to direct. But the material here is so “been there, done that” that we think there has to be some sort of twist to keep it new and fresh. It doesn’t. The target audience for this movie is about fifteen years younger and for the opposite of my sex. As much as I want to like movies like “Confessions of a Teenage Drama Queen”, “Chasing Liberty” and “13 Going on 30”, I just feel like I’m intruding on a movie that clearly has nothing in it for me. Is this a bad movie? Certainly not. Let’s just say that the fan base is for a very different type of person than me. Stiles has chosen some pretty good roles and I even enjoyed “Save the Last Dance” from a few years back. Her inclusion in “The Bourne Identity” and “The Bourne Supremacy” (albeit in a supporting role) makes me think that she’s got what it takes to survive in Hollywood. Moreover, she’s about outgrown these types of roles, so maybe it’s best for her to do them while she still can? If you don’t have 100 minutes to spare, watch the trailer, it’s only 90 seconds.
Video: How does it look?
“The Prince & Me” is presented in a very vivid 1.85:1 anamorphic transfer. As we might expect, the picture looks solid and really has nothing in the way of artifacting, edge enhancement or any other blemishes that might plague a lesser transfer. That being said, this isn’t perfect as some of the scenes seem to be a bit on the bright side. A few of the scenes at night do have a bit of artifacting (mainly in the background) to them, but nothing to get too worried about. As expected, this is another fine example of a day and date DVD release from Paramount. The disc also comes in a full-frame transfer, available seperately.
Audio: How does it sound?
The included Dolby Digital 5.1 soundtrack is about average for a movie of this genre. Naturally, we can’t expect too much here, but some of the ambiance will fill the room. Still, the movie is mostly dialogue-driven. The surrounds do take charge during a few key scenes, but nothing that really stands out as being memorable. The majority of the action takes place on the front speakers with the LFE kicking in from time to time. “The Prince & Me” provides the listener with an acceptable soundtrack, one that should please most every viewer.
Supplements: What are the extras?
Director Martha Coolidge, better known for her work a couple decades back (Real Genius and Valley Girl) gives a pretty informative track here. It’s a solo track, so there are some dead spots. But she’s directed enough and long enough that she seems to know what the audience wants to hear. A few insights about the cast and shoot are learned, and for those interested in the movie this is a good track. Three featurettes are also included, “The Lawn Mower Race of The Prince & Me”, “The Look of The Prince & Me” and “Inside the Fairy Tale”. Each is fairly self-explanatory, though I preferred the “Look…” the most. Costume design is a fairly underappreciated art in the world of film and this shows how much trouble the Costume Designer goes through to get those outfits “just right”. Also included are 6 extended and deleted scenes, including and alternate ending. The theatrical trailer is also shown (this is a Paramount disc we’re talking about) as well as a few minutes of some outtakes.
