Movie review – “The Prince and Me” (2005) **

The Yanks stole our story! Actually this is more a rip off of The Student Prince, with Prince of Denmark going incognito and romancing Julia Stiles. Stiles is an accomplished actor who seems to have been waylaid into making a lot of crap (A Guy Thing, Down to Love); she’s professional here, too, but seems to be going through the motions – she lacks the high spirits that made her so enjoyable in 10 Things I Hate About You. It is nicely done, individual scenes are given spark and shine, some strong support cast (particularly Miranda Richardson) – but can’t escape the lack of a third act. Once she finds out he’s the prince of Denmark and realises she loves him… where’s it going to go? Maybe they needed an assassination plot or something. Either that or end the film when she greets him in Denmark.