By BETH JONES
The Roanoke Times

Archives Reprint

   With "The Princess Diaries," director Garry Marshall sets out to create the kids version of his big hit, "Pretty Woman."

    Mia Thermopolis (Anne Hathaway) is a 15-year-old high-school student from San Francisco, not a lady of the night. But in "The Princess Diaries," as in "Pretty Woman," Marshall attempts to modernize the Cinderella story.

    Mia is a self-conscious, clumsy teen-ager with a bohemian artist mom named Helen (Caroline Goodall). One day, Mia's mysterious grandmother, Clarisse, (Julie Andrews) shows up and explains that Mia is the actually the princess of a small European country called Genovia.

    Mia's parents divorced when she was a baby, and Mia had no contact with her father except for the birthday presents he sent every year. Mia's mother never told Mia that her father was royalty because she wanted her daughter to have a normal childhood. But now - with the unexpected death of her father - Mia is expected to take on royal duties.

    Queen Clarisse decides to give Mia princess lessons. Like Julia Roberts' character in "Pretty Woman," the awkward Mia must be taught how to fit in with high society. Marshall even brings back Hector Elizondo, the hotel manager who taught Roberts' character how to pick the right fork in "Pretty Woman." This time around, Elizondo plays Joseph, a handsome security guard who teaches Mia how to dance at a ball.

    "Pretty Woman" was the highest-grossing film of 1990 because of Julia Roberts' knockout performance. Plain and simple. Hathaway is fine as Mia, but she doesn't yet have the dynamic presence it would take to make this cheese-ball material bearable.

    Marshall presents a fairy-tale version of teen-age life in "The Princess Diaries." In one scene, he creates a beach party straight out of "Beach Blanket Bingo." Mandy Moore, pop diva to pre-pubescents, sings a 1950s doo-wop tune as the teens frolic on the sand. You get the feeling that Marshall yearns for the "Happy Days" days of his career. Kids over the age of 10 will hate the phoniness of this film.

    The best scenes in "The Princess Diaries" are the ones in which Queen Clarisse instructs Mia on how to be a proper princess. It may be worth the price of admission to see the regal Andrews chomp down on a corn dog. Andrews reeks of royalty and has a lot of fun with her role.

    The folks at Disney should be applauded for making a family film in which "jerk" is the worst word anyone uses. Then again, "The Princess Diaries" doesn't send that great of a message to kids. Mia is told that in order to fit in among her royal family, she must straighten her naturally curly hair, tweeze her eyebrows and give up her glasses for contacts even though they hurt her eyes.

    If a filmmaker wanted to make a modern fairy tale wouldn't it better to create a fairy-tale world where people aren't judged by some archaic standard of beauty?

    Beth Jones can be reached

   at 777-6493 or bethj@roanoke.com

    The Princess Diaries

    Two Stars

    A Walt Disney Pictures' release showing at Salem Valley 8 and Valley View Grande 16. Rated G. One hour, 54 minutes.

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