Title: What a Girl Wants
Age: PG
Released: 27th March 2003
Director: Dennie Gordon
Genre: Drama, Coming of Age, Teen, Romance
Rating: **** (4/5 stars)
About: On a whim, American teenager Daphne (Amanda Bynes) boards a plane to England to find the father she never met. Upon arriving there, though, she makes a startling discovery: The man she’s looking for is Lord Henry Dashwood (Colin Firth), a member of the British upper class, who is running for political office. Lord Henry didn’t know Daphne existed, but he welcomes her into his life. However, she isn’t so sure — and his family and his current betrothed look on her disapprovingly.
Review: Who doesn’t love this film?
Firstly, it has two great actors in it – Amanda Bynes (who is absolutely great in these types of films) and Colin Firth (I always enjoy his films). There really is a great cast in this film and they work perfectly together.
This is your typical girly film, perfect for a night in with your friends when you want to feel like a teen again. I mean this film is basically recycled teen ‘girly’ films, but I still find it fun to watch.
There are some witty scenes, like the part where Daphne hugs her grandmother and her response is “No hugs, dear. I’m British. We only show affection to dogs and horses” or the cringe-worthy scene when Daphne falls off the stage.
The love interest is sweet and charming. He can sing a good song and is completely British. He is lovely though and it was even quite sad when Daphne decided to become a ‘proper’ lady, which made him not like her in the same way. I mean come on she was trying to please her father and not been seen as an ’embarrassment’.
Daphne tried so hard as well, she is clearly not meant to be prim and proper, but rather a girl who just wants to have fun and she just becomes such a boring character in those scenes. (I don’t mean that I was bored by the film but rather I just felt that if I met her character in real life I probably wouldn’t be very entertained by her).
But Bynes plays these two roles brilliantly, at the start she is the young fun girl, by the end she has completely transformed. It really was an excellent character progression from start to finish.
There’re some great shots as well in this film, the house is amazing and then there’s the very end scene with Firth standing on a boat, which is crossing the water towards what looks like a magical wedding reception. There are some nice little unique bits in this film.
I mean it’s not anything new, but I certainly enjoy watching it whenever it’s on the t.v.
.
CastlesandTurrets 