The Princess Diaries (G)
Disney Movies; Disney Wiki; IMDb; Rotten Tomatoes; TV Tropes; Wikia; Wikipedia
streaming sites: Amazon; Disney+; Google Play; Hulu; iTunes; Movies Anywhere; Vudu; YouTube
This came out in 2001, but I didn't see it until 2021. It's based on a book I haven't read. I kind of struggled with deciding what category to put my review in: "family" or "comedy" or "coming of age", the latter of which I ultimately chose at least partly because it had fewer entries than the other two categories. In fact I'm not entirely comfortable putting it in this category, but... eh, good enough. Anyway, I liked the movie, but not nearly as much as I'd hoped I would. I think the main storyline is fairly good, but some of the peripheral stuff, I mean plot points involving the main character's friends and other classmates, I didn't like quite as much. A lot of it I found pretty random, and it just didn't feel organic to the plot of the movie.
Amelia 'Mia' Thermopolis (Anne Hathaway) is a 15-year-old girl who isn't really popular at a school; not so much an outcast as just "invisible", as she calls herself. Her best friend is Lilly Moscovitz (Heather Matarazzo), who is into a lot of causes, and wishes Mia would help out more with that. Lilly has a brother named Michael, who is in a band and does auto repairs, and obviously has feelings for Mia, though she doesn't seem to notice that. Mia has a crush on a guy at school named Josh Bryant (Erik von Detten, whom I know from So Weird), but he's dating a cheerleader named Lana Thomas (Mandy Moore), who is part of a clique of three girls that pick on Mia. But none of this school stuff is all that important, IMO.
What is important is that one day, Mia's grandmother Clarisse Renaldi (Julie Andrews), whom she's never met, comes to town and informs Mia that she is actually the princess of a European country called Genovia. Mia gets upset that her mother, Helen, never told her about this, and she really doesn't want to be a princess. But she eventually agrees to take "princess lessons" until an upcoming ball, at which point she'll decide whether she's willing to accept the responsibilities of ruling a country or not. (Her father, whom she'd also never met, was a prince and next in line for the throne of Genovia, but he died a couple of months before the movie starts.) Meanwhile, Mia is supposed to keep the fact that she's a princess secret from everyone. She eventually tells Lilly, and when the secret is revealed to the press, it seems like she could have been the one who told. But it was actually a beautician working for Clarisse named Paolo (Larry Miller). Another, more trustworthy person who works for Clarisse is her head of security, Joe (Hector Elizondo), who becomes Mia's chauffer, until the ball. He also seems to have a potential romantic relationship with Clarisse. Once the secret comes out, Mia is constantly hounded by the press (I'd say they all act like paparazzi), but she becomes more popular at school, including with Josh.
And... I'm not sure I want to say anything more about the plot. Except that there's a baron and baroness who will take over Genovia if Mia refuses to take on that responsibility, but as far as I can tell no one ever told Mia about that. I'd think it's a pretty important detail to leave out, since it could have had an influence on Mia's decision; she probably wouldn't want her family to lose their status as royalty. But maybe that's exactly why Clarisse didn't tell her; maybe she didn't want it to affect Mia's decision. I don't know. I also want to mention that there isn't much about a diary involved in the plot. Mia does receive one from Clarisse, as a gift from her late father for her 16th birthday, and she does make one entry in it, but that's about it. Anyway, I don't want to say how it all ends, but the fact that there's a sequel might kind of spoil that.
Followed by The Princess Diaries 2: Royal Engagement