What a Girl Wants

For seventeen years Daphne (Bynes) had longed for her father to appear on her birthday. Her mother Libby (Preston) had never told him he was a Dad, so Daphne's dream was probably never going to come true. This year she decided to do something about it and travel from her New York home to London to finally introduce herself. The problem is that her father happens to be Lord Henry Dashwood (Firth), who is running for political office and his advisor Alistair Payne (Pryce) and his fiancé Glynnis (Chancellor) think she will be a scandal that could cost him his place in Government and not to mention their chances of moving up the social ladder.

The American dream of finding out that you have a rich, unknown relative that will make all of your dreams come true, is bought to the screen again in an extremely sickly sweet and sentimental way.

A remake of the 1958 movie "The Reluctant Debutant" starring Rex Hamilton and Sandra Lee, this is just The Princess Diaries all over again. Girl discovers she is related to a rich aristocrat, in this case a Lord not a King, but her American upbringing, while adding street smarts and the joy of all things modern, makes it difficult for her to become accustomed to the pomp and circumstance associated with more civilised society. You get the picture and you know she is going to change him and they'll live happily ever after.

It does have its good points. Amanda Bynes, from TVs The Amanda Show and Big Fat Liar, shows that she is an upcoming teenage actress that has enough personally to make a good screen lead. She is charming, personable and nice meaning that you can't help liking her endearing qualities. Colin Firth is nicely cast as her reluctant father, as he bungles his way through parenting for the first time. Anna Chancellor is also good as the prospective wicked stepmother.

What lets the movie down is the sugar coated, overly sentimental ending that you could see coming from a mile away. While the movie was always destined to end this way, it would have been nice for some inkling of originality to have crept in their. Also, the supporting cast is very underdeveloped. Jonathan Pryce's Alistair Payne is extremely underwritten and a waste of a talented actor. Kelly Preston is only in the movie for about ten minutes and Oliver James looks like a reject from a boy band which a really posh accent.

What a Girl Wants is as sugar coated a teenage 'chick-flick' as you could get. While the performances from Amanda Bynes and Colin Firth are good, you just end up wishing that they could have chosen a better film to star together in as this is decidingly average.

Audio commentary from director Dennie Gordon and star Amanda Bynes, Additional scenes, 'Fashion And Etiquette 101' featurette, 'What's A Girl To Wear' interactive challenge, Easter Egg (hidden feature), Interactive menu & Scene access

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2003