Guilty Pleasures: The Princess Diaries

Ah, guilty pleasures.

Everyone has at least one but not nearly everyone dares to admit to it. I have got plenty of guilty pleasures, at the moment the biggest one is One Direction.

It is pretty weird to feel guilty about getting pleasure out of something. Why would it matter? Who cares what you like? But alas, no matter how much we try to deny it, we always try to seek approval from our peers. And we feel guilty about loving certain things because they are not considered to be part of the “high-brow” society.

We definitely do not want to look silly in other people’s eyes.

The guilty pleasure this time is The Princess Diaries, the 2001 classic with Anne Hathaway, Heather Matarazzo, Hector Elizondo and Julie Andrews. It became popular enough that they made film number two, The Princess Diaries 2: Royal Engagement, which had the added talents of Chris Pine and Jonathan Rhys-Davis.

It follows the typical storyline of the ugly duckling, Mia Thermopolis living alone with her artistic and a bit wacky mother, in an old converted fire station. The duckling has only one friend, and they seem to have bonded over the fact they are both outsiders. Ugly, not interested in fashion, and average in intelligence. Then it suddenly turns out that the ugly duckling’s father was the crown prince of a far-away European country called Genovia. And with a little bit of tweaking (like taking off her glasses and plucking her eyebrows) Mia Thermopolis’ swan emerges.

She is whisked off to Genovia to take on the role of the crown princess, since her father had died and she is the only heir. And silliness ensues.

It sounds pretty horrendous, does it not? But it is all kinds of fun in its silliness. With these films you cannot really think too much about how politically incorrect they are in so many ways. They are just fun. Happy, silly, bright, and colourful.

She, of course, is horrible at trying to be a princess, she has seemingly never known anything called etiquette. She cannot sit correctly, eat correctly, walk correctly and so on (there is a big feminist argument involving this film, I fear).

But it is still so fun! Just see:

The film is based on a book series, written by Meg Cabot. I have never read the books, and I am not even sure I want to.

She said  she was inspired to write “The Princess Diaries when my mom, after the death of my father, began dating one of my teachers, just as Mia’s mom does in the book! I have always had a “thing” for princesses (my parents used to joke that when I was little, I did a lot of insisting that my “real” parents, the king and queen, were going to come get me soon, and that everyone had better start being a LOT nicer to me) so I stuck a princess in the book just for kicks… and VOILÀ! The Princess Diaries was born.”

Clearly, much thinking was put into this. But no matter, it works. The film is brilliant. But I do not admit it to just anyone. You are in a position of privilege, my dear reader. I suggest you bask in it while you can. And while you are basking, please watch the film and you will be instantly swooped away into a world where nothing can go wrong. Or can it?

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