The Prince & Me is silly, implausible, and has uneven pacing, but it still managed to entertain me and make me feel good after a stressful day.
Plot Summary
Edvard (Luke Mably) is a spoiled brat, and also the Prince of Denmark. Paige (Julia Stiles) is a too-serious career-driven university student. Their paths cross when Edvard enrolls incognito (as Eddy) in the University of Wisconsin.
Will he be able to woo the first girl not easily seduced by his charms or title? Will this love story have a fairytale ending? Although there are few twists or surprises in the plot, there is a certain upbeat charm to much of the movie that made me feel good and not care about the cliches or improbabilities.
Characters
Edvard (Luke Mably) is charming, spoiled, but with surprising moments of depth. Mably's a hunk, and I especially enjoyed watching him talk about Shakespeare. Edvard's connection with Shakespeare is one of the early signs that he might hold some hidden depths, and Mably is able to provide the emotional resonance.
Paige (Julia Stiles) is single-mindedly career-driven, and I didn't find sufficient motivation for her more extreme romantic actions. But, ah well, it's fun to watch this fairytale and imagine myself as that character. I didn't feel that Stiles did particularly well in this role, but maybe it was just the poor writing. For example, there's a scene early on where she is dancing around as she cleans up at the pub where she works; I knew that this was supposed to show how she's not always wound up, but instead the scene seemed overdone and not true to the rest of her portrayal.
The King (James Fox) and Queen (Miranda Richardson) don't get much screen time, but are played by seasoned actors who make the most of their roles.
Soren (Ben Miller) is sympathetic as the put-upon valet/body-guard, but is a character you shouldn't think too much about if you don't want to shatter the fragile illusion of this movie. For example, how is Edvard able to pass himself off as a "regular" student, when he has a servant following him around everywhere. At least the chemistry teacher had an explanation: he assumed they were gay lovers. But none of the students seem to notice anything odd. At least his character provides comic scenes.
Pacing
The pacing is quite uneven in this movie! Sometimes the film moves along well at a reasonable pace. But then there are large sections that are slow and seem to serve no purpose. Will these get cut before the April 2 opening? I hope so, but suspect it's a little late for changes. It's also strange that this movie takes place during an entire school year in Wisconsin and Denmark, and yet there are no snow scenes.
Locations
This movie takes place in Wisconsin (at the University of Wisconsin, and also around the farm where Paige's family lives) and Denmark (in Copenhagen, mostly at the palace). Funny how with two cold locations, this film can take place throughout an entire school year without any signs of snow. As I've said before, you can't think too deeply about this film if you're going to enjoy it.
There aren't many shots of sites and landscape of Denmark, just enough to establish the location.
A bit of trivia: parts of the University of Wisconsin were filmed at York University in Toronto. All of the pub scenes are at York's "The Underground".
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