The Prince and Me

A fine young actress when the mood takes her, Julia Stiles sells herself horribly short in the slushy The Prince and Me. Billing itself as a romantic comedy (albeit one with precious few laughs), this loose riff on Cinderella follows overachieving uber idealistic Wisconsin farm girl Paige Morgan (Stiles) who has her heart set on becoming a doctor. Not for any financial gain you understand, but because the wholesome Paige wants to help those less fortunate in the world. Meanwhile, the randy Prince of Denmark, Edvard Valdemar (Mably), lives a life of privilege, bedding hotties and routinely holding impromptu street races with the likes of Eddie Irvine. After this spoilt brat gets into trouble with the press one time too many, he decides to 'find himself' by going to college in Wisconsin. (His choice of university is apparently influenced by some soft porn hi-jinks he stumbles across on television one morning.) With his trusty valet, Soren (Miller) in tow, Edvard adopts the name of Eddie, and hightails it over to the great American heartland. And if you can't guess what happens next, you've either never seen a romantic comedy or you were sitting at the back of the class for a very good reason.

With its dubious fairytale premise and a plot that never strays from the path of the predictable, The Prince and Me is little more than an exercise in cinematic regurgitation. The script, the product of three credited writers, is as shallow and second-hand as any movie dares to be, while the righteousness of Paige becomes almost as difficult to stomach as the intolerably arrogant attitude of the young prince. Twelve-year-old girls will love it, though