|
WHAT A GIRL WANTS Send This Review to a Friend
The girl might want something, but who would want to see this impossibly silly fairy tale? "What a Girl Wants" derives its inspiration from the 1958 film "Reluctant Debutante," but time has not been good to the idea. Amanda Bynes, trying to be oh-so cute as Daphne, pines for the father she never knew and sets off to England in hopes of finally meeting the man who bedded her mom Libby (Kelly Preston).
Dad is Lord Henry Dashwood (Colin Firth), who swims in aristocracy and is at a key point in a carefully built campaign to be elected to Parliament. His handlers got rid of Libby years ago by telling her Henry wanted out because she was too free a spirit and embarrassment. Libby kept her pregnancy to herself and Daphne learns that Henry never knew he had a daughter.
Henry is receptive to her, but she's a fresh embarrassment because of her own free-spirited ways. Thus an effort is made for her to make herself over into the sort of dignified young woman who fits into the daddy's stultified world. Daddy needs some making over too. Would it surprise you to find that after assorted complications they both learn to be true to themselves, that Henry and Libby are reunited, that Daphne winds up with the boyfriend who likes her as she was and everyone lives happily ever after?
Screenwriters Jenny Bicks and Elizabeth Chandler, as well as director Dennie Gordon, have drenched the film in syrup. It seems too dopey for the teen audience for which it may be intended and hopeless for adults. A Warner Brothers release.
|