Marianne had posted about Luke Malby, an actor who starred in the movie The Prince and Me. Since I'm writing a prince story, I thought this would be a great movie to watch to put me in a royal mood so to speak.
Please note, there will be spoilers so stop reading now if you don't want to know any more about the movie.
The other night, hubby and I put the kids to bed and put in the DVD. I told him it was a chick flick that I wanted to watch for research. He said that was okay. We settled back on the couch ready to be entertained.
I know many love this movie. I wanted to like it, but it just didn't work for me. Hubby, either.
First off, when I was at Stanford, the prince of Belgium was there getting his masters degree, so the whole prince going to college did not feel new or fresh to me. Add in Prince Edvard's motivation to go to college in the US--to see women take off their shirts--and it just didn't work for me. Rather, it made the prince seem to have the maturity level of a fourteen year old boy. Sure, I could totally buy his wanting to race fast cars and kiss women. What guy wouldn't? But given that many beaches in Europe are topless, I don't know why he just didn't fly down to the south of France for a few days instead of enrolling in a college in Wisconsin.
Still I loved Prince Edvard.
Luke Malby is totally crush worthy and redeems himself from his mammary infatuation rather quickly. He is totally charming as a stranger in a strange land of cheeseheads and dorm roommates. When cutoff from his money, he first asks his manservant, Soren, a great character, for his money, then gets a job even though he has no idea what he's doing.
Eddy's love for Paige is the catalyst for his change from boy to man, prince to king. When he threatens his parents that he not to become king if he can't marry Paige, you believe him. He's become a better person by the end of the movie. His character growth is clear and consistent.
The heroine, Paige, is a character many romance writers have used in books. So driven and focused on a life plan for her future that she's missing out on life now. That worked for me. Her character arc didn't. And because of that I could not believe these two would ever live happily ever after. That's what ruined the movie for me.
At the climax of the movie, Paige decides for no reason that I can see other than staring at a globe that her dream of being a doctor and traveling the world is more important than her love for Eddy. There is nothing to motivate this decision. All the while, you think she's grown enough as an individual (her flying to Denmark with her girlfriends all using their credit cards to pay for the trip is great) to see that what's most important in life is love. But no, what's most important to Paige are her dreams, not a man who was willing to give up the throne for her. Also for someone who was supposed to be so smart, it was surprising she gave no thought whatsoever that as Queen of Denmark she could do a whole lot more for Doctors without Borders than as an MD herself.
If you watch the deleted scenes, you do get more of an idea of why she made the choice she did. At least two of those scenes should have been in the movie. Still, Paige wasn't willing to make any sacrifices, and this was a big downfall of the movie to me. If you watch the deleted scenes, you realize that her graduation day is the same as Denmark's constitution day, so when Eddy shows up it's a big sacrifice for him to be there. Of course, this made his love for her feel even more lopsided to me, and just reinforced my belief of no happy ending there. I'm not even going to discuss the alternate unhappy ending.
One other thing. Hubby and I both had problems understanding the time passage during the movie. Thanksgiving was mentioned. I was thinking semester finals were in January when Eddy leaves, but it was always sunny. I thought it snowed in Wisconsin. Maybe that's just during Packer playoff games. So perhaps Eddy left at the end of the school year instead. Still Paige was in Belgium for two weeks. Why would graduation be delayed so long after finals? Maybe I'm too analytical, but questions like these pull me right out of movies and books and make them less enjoyable to me. (And in case you're wondering, I do drive my critique partner crazy with stuff like this!)
I don't mean to be harping on The Prince and Me. It was an okay movie. There were some laughs (the xbox roommate is funny) and nice, sweet scenes. I enjoyed the prince watching her dance and falling in love with her. The look on his face matches the words in the song so well. The scenes with her family during a Thanksgiving visit were fun. And what female wouldn't love to try on all those crown jewels in the safe! But I needed to believe in the HEA. That's my payoff with movies like this. (Books, too!) I think the movie could have been a lot better in that regard.
Did you see The Prince and Me? What did you think?
13 comments:
First off, I agree about the deleted scenes. BUT... I disagree about Paige's motivations to call off the marriage. I think she was getting swallowed up and losing her own identity. Paige was VERY strong, and suddenly she was asked to give up everything she'd worked for her entire life. This is made clear in that one deleted scene -- Eddy asks her to give up her graduation ceremony with the assumption that it's less important than what he needs to do.
For someone as driven and focused as Paige, that must have been terrifying. I think it was far more than just Paige giving up her "dreams" ... I think it was the thought of giving up herself. The queen mentions this at one point -- she is no longer "Paige" but is the future queen of Denmark. That's HUGE. Eddy was asking her to give up EVERYTHING: her life, her career, her dreams. I think the ending was satisfying: they are BOTH giving something up at that point, instead of Paige giving up everything and Eddy giving up nothing.
The weather thing didn't bother me... what can I say?
And I loved watching Eddy grow up.
Just my .02!
I see what you're saying, Marianne, but it still doesn't work for me.
I waited a couple of days before watching the deleted scenes. As for those explaining what she did, I don't count deleted scenes as part of the movie since the director left them off. The film must stand on it's own without them. Besides those scenes might have clarified a couple of things, but they didn't change how I felt.
It just wasn't my cup of tea. Nothing wrong with different expectations from movies or definitions of satisfying endings!
It's been a while since I've seen TP&M (which means it wasn't worth a repeat view). IIRC, the lack of character arc was the least of this movie's problems (I think Edward behaving like a 14-year-old at the beginning was the point--though if kidlet #1 starts acting like that this summer, there will be words). I understood why Paige left him, but I kept wondering why she didn't marry him and then use her position to do something about the problem. Imagine how much more effective she could have been as a Princess/Queen. This way, she could have had the best of both worlds.
While there were lots of cute bits, the movie as a whole wasn't cohesive. I wasn't sucked into this movie, which was too bad, because the potential was there. It's like a flat cake: All the ingredients are there, but somewhere along the line the baker messed up and instead of a beautiful, springy cake, you have a plate-shaped doorstop.
Good cake analogy, Amy.
I had high hopes for the movie. Probably too high which has happened before. But you're right, the potential was there.
And I think part of the problem stems from what they (director,producer,studio) wanted this movie to be. I remember something that the director said. That they brought in new writers to give the movie more modern day sensibilities. I can't remember the exact wording. Yet it was the original screenplay writer who came up with the alternate ending where they aren't together. That seemed odd to me.
But it's fun to analyze stuff like this because it makes me think of my books and others, and why things worked or didn't work in them.
Today I kept thinking about this new story and my first Silhouette Romance, If the Ring Fits..., which was written to be a modern day fairy tale. I embraced that fairy tale concept and the Cinderella archetype, which I use some version of in almost all my stories, and tried not to waver from them. Some readers loved it. Others had no problem telling me in not so many words that they preferred more realistic stories!
I didn't see this movie. Am i to understand that Paige did not marry the Prince?
I do think it's a lot for a strong woman to give up everything while the man doesn't.
If you didn't like this movie, you will detest the sequel. I admit to only seeing bits and pieces of both, but the concept was nice, just not pulled off to the degree where it was believable.
That said, I hope you had a great day!
I love fairy tales and sometimes a book with a prince is nice... Melissa you seem to have athing for them (you wrote 2 already, right, one with a real prince, and one with the title Prince Charming?)
I have not seen this movie... I am not a fan of Julia Stiles, however I loved the Princess Dairies!
Melissa: Maybe where the movie went wrong was in trying to update it instead of holding true to the fairy tale archetype.
Also, you could say Paige took on the "male" characteristic of identifying herself only in terms of her accomplishments (occupation) rather than who she is at her core.
Hi Melissa,
No I have not seen the movie. I do like fairy tales with the happily ever after endings. ;-)
I saw both of the Princess Diary movies. Ann Hathaway is such a pretty girl and a fantastic actress! I will give the movie a try to see what I think of it.
I have not seen the movie! This made me think about whether I want to or not! Cindi
jchoppes[at]hotmail[dot]com
Nathalie - I've only written one prince book. I'm currently writing the second. Prince Charming was just part of the title. He was a CEO, not royalty.
Amy - yes! That makes total sense to me.
Deseng - I really enjoyed The Princess Diaries.
Cindi - everyone has different views on movies. Don't let mine keep you from watching The Prince and Me. Others love it! And the prince is a cutie! It's worth it for him.
Melissa,
As I had read that book... I knew he was a CEO... however it was Prince Charming in the title... that is who I thought you liked the theme or the variation of it :)
That wasn't my title, Nathalie. Harlequin came up with that. Mine was Not So Plain Jane. They didn't like that one.
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