The Princess Diaries is a modern day fairy tale about Mia (Hathaway) who lives in San Francisco with her divorced mother. One day, her estranged grandmother (Andrews) comes to visit with a proposal for her: She would like Mia to be her successor and become Princess of Genovia. Hilarity ensues because Mia is pretty much a regular teen who is clumsy, awkward and in desperate need of a professional makeover, so she spends the next several weeks in etiquette lessons, getting "re-done" and trying to decide if being a princess is what she really wants in life. The film was cute, at times extremely corny, but watcheable. It featured surprisingly decent acting by Hathaway, who made up for the horrible Mandy Moore. I especially enjoyed Hector Elizondo, a good character actor who was kind of hilarious doing his best Shaft impersonation as the Queen's head of security. Heather Matarazzo who was also featured as Mia's best friend, continues in her "quirky girl" tradition, but still can't live up to her role in Welcome to the Dollhouse. This is one of the few "kid's movies" that I wouldn't hesitate to watch with a kid, because it's tolerable. It's also so predictable that if you snooze in the middle of it you won't miss anything when you wake up.
I give it four stars
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