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THE PRINCE & ME
 By Rachel Deahl Review Film Critic Recently there's been quite a bit in the news media about the trend among young mothers - those who were supposed to be reaping the benefits of the Sexual Revolution -- choosing to stay home and raise their kids. Anyone who saw the March 22nd issue of TIME couldn't miss their cover story, with the powerful image of a little boy staring up at his mother, "The Case for Staying Home." And in October "The New York Times" published Lisa Belkin's controversial piece, "The Opt-Out Revolution," which reported about a group of upwardly mobile women, most of them former Ivy Leaguers with graduate degrees, who were checking out of their careers to be full-time moms.
Overtly this dicey topic may not seem to have
much to do with the most recent Cinderella fable from Hollywood, "The
Prince & Me," except that this fairy tale is ultimately about the same
thing: an ambitious young co-ed on the track to Medical school, who drops out
to take Prince Charming instead.
As the no-nonsense, Pre-Med undergrad, Paige
Morgan, Julia Stiles is so focused on her studies that her girlfriends
can barely convince her to come for a beer before the semester's even begun.
While Paige has her nose in the books and is avoiding fun at all costs - her
goal is to get into Johns Hopkins Medical School and join Doctors Without
Borders -- at the University of Wisconsin, Edward the Crown Prince of Denmark
(Luke Mably), is having nothing but fun.
The philandering, spoiled, handsome heir to
the throne spends his time racing cars and romancing multiple women. So, when
Edward decides he needs a break from his Royal life, he opts to visit the
American heartland (on the assumption that he can hang out with the women he's
seen in "College Girls Gone Wild" videos) and signs up for a semester at
Paige's alma mater.
Going by Eddie, the Prince quickly tries to
settle into life at Wisconsin. Of course Paige immediately sees him for what
he is, well sort of. Thinking Eddie is another spoiled rich kid Paige
dismisses his advances. And Eddie, who's never been turned down before, is
immediately smitten. After the two bond over a deli slicer - Eddie signs on to
work at the college restaurant alongside Paige - love begins to sprout.
For the most part, "The Prince & Me" is
pretty innocuous. The notion of a European prince, in the tradition of
William, hiding out at a Big Ten school is so ridiculous it's almost
appealing. Unfortunately, when the film moves from Wisconsin to Denmark, the
silliness of the situation reveals itself.
When Paige decides to drop everything and fly
to Denmark to be with Eddie, the movie launches into an unfortunate sequence
in which the young American lives her fairy tale only to realize life, as the
Queen can ultimately be stifling and lonely.
Her final choice, which ridiculously posits
she can have Eddie and her medical career, is perhaps the silliest addition of
all, as Paige maintains some displaced form of individuality while giving it
up in the same breath.
In one of its sweeter scenes, in the college
laundry room, Paige tells Eddie how little use she has for Shakespeare. She
tosses off a nasty remark about "Hamlet," saying no one could be interested in
the struggles of a spoiled prince.
The irony is cute, but thin. In the end
Edward owes more to Richard Gere's character in "Pretty Woman" (also named
Edward) than to Shakespeare's distraught hero. And Paige, like Julia Robert's
hooker, is just another girl who needs saving; this time around the ugly
alternative is a loveless life in Doctors Without Borders as opposed to
prostitution.
GRADE: C+
THE ALAMO
 At the end of 2003 Hollywood released a seafaring epic about chivalry, patriotism and the horrors of 19th century maritime warfare in "Master and Commander." Unlike many critics, I found "Master" mostly tedious. That said, where the characters fell mostly flat and the storyline dragged, director Peter Weir offered some flashes of brilliance: sprinkled in among the shots of men at sea were gripping scenes of ships ripping each other apart.
Weir offered impressive and haunting images
that showed what it must have been like to do battle at sea during that era.
But, for the most part, what Weir showed was that life as a sailor is, in the
end, marked by long stretches of boredom.
In a similar vein, "The Alamo," which
was supposed to be released earlier this year, misses its mark. Sophomore
director John Lee Hancock ("The Rookie") winds up revealing that the
Alamo was a quick battle that took a painstakingly long time to get underway.
Hancock, a native Texan, says in the Press
Notes that what he most wanted to do in "The Alamo" was present a tale
that diluted the mythology surrounding the story. Although Hancock does a fair
job trying to present the historical figures who emerged from the battle in a
more complex light than in previous Hollywood films (like John Wayne's 1960
"The Alamo"), the movie is still ultimately mired in trite generalities and
visuals about bravery and war.
Like Hancock's first film, "The Rookie,"
a rousing tale of a high school baseball coach who is coaxed to try out for
the Majors by his young team, "The Alamo" is rather simplistic
re-telling of a David and Goliath scenario. Once Hancock has pitted the noble
underdog against the gruesome giant and, the winner, emerges with a chance at
immortality.
So, although Hancock doesn't offer anything to
the discourse on the subject of the Alamo beyond what you might learn from an
elementary school history lesson, he does do a fair job portraying the key
historical figures associated with the event.
The three key figures in the battle - Davy
Crockett (Billy Bob Thornton), William Travis (Patrick Wilson) and Jim Bowie
(Jason Patric) - are all crafted with a slightly deeper eye towards
history. Of the three, Hitchcock is most interested with Crockett who is
depicted here as a good-hearted failed Washington politician who arrives at
the Alamo looking for free land, not a fight.
Thornton's valorous, sweet Crockett - who
prefers going by "David, not Davy" - is depicted as a both blessed and cursed
by celebrity. The beneficiary of nationally known tall tales and a widely seen
play, Crockett - who describes himself as a regular guy from Tennessee - is
played with deep humanity and gentleness by Thornton.
Of course, in the end, Hancock goes to all the
effort of showing us David Crockett only to leave us with an image of Davy -
Thornton's character is heroically the last one left standing and falls to the
Mexicans with a decidedly Hollywood finish.
Built on what wound up being the largest set
ever created in North America, "The Alamo" never gives off the feel of
a remarkable war movie. The set doesn't look particularly impressive and the
battle scenes are forgettable.
At one point, early on in the film, when
William Travis arrives at the fort he has been assigned to defend, his
departing captain tells him he needs to be wary of two things: that his men
will kill each other or that they'll die of boredom.
The latter statement is all too apropos since,
in his attempt to offer a realistic depiction of the events at the Alamo,
Hancock delivers what amounts to a long, drawn-out waiting game.
GRADE: B |
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