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The Prince & Me [2004] (REGION 1) (NTSC)


Our Price: £3.13 (subject to change)

Hight quality acting in non typical rom-com movie
Review date: 2007-08-09 Rating: 8 out of 10

Do not be misguided by the silly title or typical rom-com cover of this DVD! There's much more to it than the average movie in this genre. I was very much positively surprised by this movie. Fortunately this has nothing in common with movies like princess diaries or other shallow teen movies.

Here we have a quite realistic view of an unexpected passion between a modern, ambitious woman(Julia Stiles as med student Paige), meeting an equally realistic character, a modern young man, who happens to be a royalty,(British actor Luke Malby as Eddie, the Prince of Denmark)and who is trying to escape the burden of wealth and paparazis by going to USA to study. A lot of royalties in Europe do this in real life too. The change of Malby's character Eddie gives an extra thrill to the story line, when he falls in love with a woman who is not accustomed to a jet set life. He want's to be like other guys and mature, for her.

The interesting thing in this movie, as in all good movies, is not the ending, but the way there and how the characters get there. We know the endings in this type of movies so that is not an issue really. But unlike most rom-coms there is a good and realistic dialog between these two characters in this movie, and even better, a lot of it happens through witty face expressions. Especially when they are about to fall in love but don't want to admit it to each other. The expressions themselves fills your stomach with butterflies in these scenes! Malby is a promising actor in this respect that I'd like to see more of in the future. Another bonus is that the chemistry and flirting (read:silent attraction) between these characters lasts to the very end. They really want to make it work although they do give up from time to time because of their different backgrounds. A very well acted and written contemporary love story, where you can identify with the characters feelings and metamorphoses.

A bonus also for the adaptation of the British royal modern life style, in stead of the Danish (because of the language). Much better than if characters would have pretended to be Danish. As a Scandinavian no one would have bought a fake accent, so better go for the British style all along.

One could only hope that real life royalties would come out as happy as Eddie in his choice of love. Unfortunately it seems that real life royalties often face a heavier load (the real prince of Denmark also married a "commoner", but his royal burden / upbringing did cause problems and led to a divorce).

There's nothing better than a well acted feel good movie, but nothing worse than a badly acted, badly directed or totally silly one. This belong to the first category. I recommend this to everyone who is past their teens and want to watch a quality lighthearted romance movie. Side characters like Miranda Richardson as the Queen also makes it a good one.

Whatever you do, do not buy the sequel. I can't imagine how anyone could think of replacing Julia Stiles in that one. This is a movie to watch over and over again. It has enough good chemistry, no sequel can replace that.

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Reviews


Really sweet nonsense
Review date: 2004-11-12 Rating: 6 out of 10

Ambitious college girl, Paige, from small-town Wisconsin, meets and falls in love Edvard, an exchange fellow-student from Denmark who acts high and mighty, and ultimately turns out to be the crown prince, aka upcoming king of Denmark, and before she knows it she is being groomed for queen.

Well, nothing here quite stands up for inspection, historically and politically this is ludicrous. BUT, as an affable teenage romantic comedy it has lots to offer. Julia Stiles and Luke Mably are really sweet together, and the proces of their falling in love is depicted in a bewitching, very poignant fashion that completely seduced me. "Are there lots of princes where you come from or are you IT?", Paige asks right after the Danish paparazzi discovered the two of them in flagrante delicto, which is when she finds out who her beau actually is, and that, to me, is a very cute line. Huge chunks of this movie are silly or, at best, incongruous, such as having Edvard speaking in perfectly stilted upperclass English, and the queen, his alleged mother, in a bad German accent.

Sweet and affecting though it is, the film is much to long for its own good. After Paige pursuits the crown prince to Copenhagen, the plot drowns in etiquette and coy culture clashes.

Product Details/Specifications


Actor(s):
Ben Miller (II)
Julia Stiles
Miranda Richardson
James Fox
Luke Mably

Creators:
Julia Stiles (Primary Contributor)
Luke Mably (Primary Contributor)

Director(s):

Recording label: Paramount
Manufacturer: Paramount
EAN: 9780792197706
Binding: DVD
ISBN: 0792197704
Number of items: 1
Format: Anamorphic, Closed-captioned, Collector's Edition, Colour, Dolby, DVD-Video, Subtitled, Widescreen, NTSC,
Release date: 2004-08-10
Universal product code (UPC): 097363423843
Aspect ratio: 1.85:1
Region code: 1
Running time: 110 minutes
Theatrical release date: 2004-04-02
Language: English (Original Language)
Language: French (Original Language)
Language: English (Subtitled)
Language: Spanish (Subtitled)

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