To be fair, this movie MUST be recognized for the intended target audience: Young girls, maybe 8 to 15 years old. My childless roommate, a female, thought some of the dialogue and behavior of the title character was a bit fakey. My experience with young adolescent girls in the household was that the movie dialogue was actually right on key. Kids have a way of over-dramatizing things, and a penchant for making even the most ordinary situations theatrical and melodramatic. "The Princess Diaries" certainly seemed to capture that.
The thing is, what truly interests and occupies a 13 or 14 year-old girl is NOT what interests anybody else. Thus, the movie comes off as kind of stale, lame, and way too low key. In our house, we gamely tried to get in the spirit and enjoy what the movie could offer us. Sadly, that wasn't much, and we ultimately gave up and quit watching before the end. Within 4 or 5 seconds we had forgotten that we had even been watching it.
But for the kids-- it seems wholesome and authentic, and possibly just the thing for those angsty early adolescent theater queens. Rent or buy it for them, but save yourself the trouble of dismissing it.
The thing is, what truly interests and occupies a 13 or 14 year-old girl is NOT what interests anybody else. Thus, the movie comes off as kind of stale, lame, and way too low key. In our house, we gamely tried to get in the spirit and enjoy what the movie could offer us. Sadly, that wasn't much, and we ultimately gave up and quit watching before the end. Within 4 or 5 seconds we had forgotten that we had even been watching it.
But for the kids-- it seems wholesome and authentic, and possibly just the thing for those angsty early adolescent theater queens. Rent or buy it for them, but save yourself the trouble of dismissing it.