SCREEN IT! PARENTAL REVIEW: THE PRINCE & ME

"THE PRINCE & ME"
(2004) (Julia Stiles, Luke Mably) (PG)

Alcohol/ Drugs	Blood/Gore	Disrespectful/ Bad Attitude	Frightening/ Tense Scenes	Guns/ Weapons
Moderate	None	Moderate	None	Minor

Imitative Behavior	Jump Scenes	Music (Scary/Tense)	Music (Inappropriate)	Profanity
Mild	None	None	Minor	Mild

Sex/ Nudity	Smoking	Tense Family Scenes	Topics To Talk About	Violence
Moderate	None	Mild	Mild	Mild

QUICK TAKE:: Romantic Comedy: An American college student unknowingly falls for the Prince of Denmark who's posing as a classmate to get away from his royal duties.

PLOT:

Paige Morgan (JULIA STILES) is a college student who grew up on a Wisconsin dairy farm with her family, including parents Morgan (ALBERTA WATSON) and Ben (JOHN BOURGEOIS), and now wishes to attend med school so that she can work for Doctors without Borders.

Edward (LUKE MABLY) is the crown prince of Denmark whose mother, Queen Rosalind (MIRANDA RICHARDSON), and ailing father, King Haraald (JAMES FOX), aren't pleased that their dashing playboy son doesn't take his royal responsibilities more seriously.

Leaving them and 12-year-old sister Princess Arabella (ELIZA BENNETT), Edward decides to visit America and attend a Wisconsin college after seeing one of those "wild girls" video promotions.

Accompanied by his personal servant, Soren (BEN MILLER), Edward poses as Eddie and doesn't let anyone know of his heritage or position. It's not long before he meets and is instantly smitten with Paige, although the feeling isn't initially mutual.

Yet, she eventually finds herself falling for him and the two become an item. From that point on, and once she learns of his true identity, Paige must decide the appropriate course between her academic and future professional life and the longings of her heart.

WILL KIDS WANT TO SEE IT?: If they're fans of anyone in the cast or romantic comedies, they probably will.

WHY THE MPAA RATED IT: PG: For some sex-related material and language.

CAST AS ROLE MODELS:: JULIA STILES plays a pre-med college student who initially doesn't like Eddie, but eventually falls for and fools around with him. She also uses brief profanity and drinks some.
LUKE MABLY plays the playboy Prince of Denmark who anonymously enrolls at Paige's college and instantly falls for her. He briefly fools around with her, drinks and uses some brief profanity, but must eventually return home when royal duty calls.
BEN MILLER plays his personal and somewhat stuffy assistant who eventually loosens up a bit.
JAMES FOX plays Eddie's father, the ailing King of Denmark.
MIRANDA RICHARDSON plays the Queen, Eddie's mother who isn't happy with his choices in life, including Paige as his girlfriend.
ELIZA BENNETT plays Eddie's 12-year-old sister who's concerned about her sick father.
ALBERTA WATSON and JOHN BOURGEOIS play Paige's parents who welcome Eddie into their home over a vacation break.; LUKE MABLY plays the playboy Prince of Denmark who anonymously enrolls at Paige's college and instantly falls for her. He briefly fools around with her, drinks and uses some brief profanity, but must eventually return home when royal duty calls.
BEN MILLER plays his personal and somewhat stuffy assistant who eventually loosens up a bit.
JAMES FOX plays Eddie's father, the ailing King of Denmark.
MIRANDA RICHARDSON plays the Queen, Eddie's mother who isn't happy with his choices in life, including Paige as his girlfriend.
ELIZA BENNETT plays Eddie's 12-year-old sister who's concerned about her sick father.
ALBERTA WATSON and JOHN BOURGEOIS play Paige's parents who welcome Eddie into their home over a vacation break.; BEN MILLER plays his personal and somewhat stuffy assistant who eventually loosens up a bit.
JAMES FOX plays Eddie's father, the ailing King of Denmark.
MIRANDA RICHARDSON plays the Queen, Eddie's mother who isn't happy with his choices in life, including Paige as his girlfriend.
ELIZA BENNETT plays Eddie's 12-year-old sister who's concerned about her sick father.
ALBERTA WATSON and JOHN BOURGEOIS play Paige's parents who welcome Eddie into their home over a vacation break.; JAMES FOX plays Eddie's father, the ailing King of Denmark.
MIRANDA RICHARDSON plays the Queen, Eddie's mother who isn't happy with his choices in life, including Paige as his girlfriend.
ELIZA BENNETT plays Eddie's 12-year-old sister who's concerned about her sick father.
ALBERTA WATSON and JOHN BOURGEOIS play Paige's parents who welcome Eddie into their home over a vacation break.; MIRANDA RICHARDSON plays the Queen, Eddie's mother who isn't happy with his choices in life, including Paige as his girlfriend.
ELIZA BENNETT plays Eddie's 12-year-old sister who's concerned about her sick father.
ALBERTA WATSON and JOHN BOURGEOIS play Paige's parents who welcome Eddie into their home over a vacation break.; ELIZA BENNETT plays Eddie's 12-year-old sister who's concerned about her sick father.
ALBERTA WATSON and JOHN BOURGEOIS play Paige's parents who welcome Eddie into their home over a vacation break.; ALBERTA WATSON and JOHN BOURGEOIS play Paige's parents who welcome Eddie into their home over a vacation break.

CAST, CREW, & TECHNICAL INFO

HOW OTHERS RATED THIS MOVIE

Curious if this title is entertaining, any good, and/or has any artistic merit?
Then read OUR TAKE of this film.

(Note: The "Our Take" review of this title examines the film's artistic merits and does not take into account any of the possibly objectionable material listed below).

OUR WORD TO PARENTS:

Here's a brief summary of the content found in this romantic comedy that's been rated PG. Profanity consists of at least 1 "s" word, while a handful of other expletives and colorful phrases are uttered.

Some sexually related dialogue is present, while a young couple is seen making out on several occasions (a partial disrobing session is interrupted). A TV commercial for one of those "wild girl" videos shows young women flashing their breasts at the camera (mostly obscured by black boxes superimposed over their chests).

Some characters drink (one to the point of being tipsy), some have a few bad attitudes, there's a brief fight (somewhat played for comedy), and some tense family material involves a sick father and concerned kids.

Should you still be concerned about the film's appropriateness for yourself or anyone else in your home, you may want to look more closely at our detailed listings for more specific information regarding the film's content.

ALCOHOL OR DRUG USE: Miscellaneous people drink.
Miscellaneous people drink at a wedding where Paige has champagne.
Paige and her friends have beer in an establishment where others also drink. One of the friends then brings a shot for Paige that she downs.
Miscellaneous people have drinks in a college bar where Eddie and Soren have had several (we see the empty mugs on their table). Eddie, who's a bit tipsy, then asks Paige to take off her top. She gets mad and sprays him with soda water.
After Eddie quotes some Shakespeare in an apology for being drunk the night before, Paige asks Soren if Eddie is drunk now.
A song has a brief lyric about the singer having a beer.
A miscellaneous person has what looks like beer.
Eddie and others drink beer.
We see some wine bottles near Eddie and Paige on their picnic.
Miscellaneous people have wine.
Miscellaneous people have champagne.

BLOOD/GORE: None.

DISRESPECTFUL/BAD ATTITUDE: Although he's doing so to maintain a low profile, Eddie keeps his true identity secret from Paige.
While tipsy, Eddie asks Paige to take off her top. As a result, she initially doesn't like him.
A local guy briefly has a bad attitude toward Eddie and even punches him.
Eddie's mother is not happy with his love for Paige and initially isn't nice to her.

FRIGHTENING SCENES: None.

GUNS/WEAPONS: We briefly see footage from a first person shooter video game where Soren mows down some characters on the screen with an animated weapon.
Some ceremonial guards hold rifles.

IMITATIVE BEHAVIOR: Phrases: "Screw(ing) up," "Sucks," "Screw things up," "Brainless slut," "Incompetent idiot," "Royal pain in the ass," "Dude, there's a chick in our room," "You cheap Swede," "Doesn't mean crap to me," "Dawg," "Total loser," "Moron twins," "Shut up," "I'm gonna kick your ass," "What the hell was that?" and "Before all hell breaks lose."
A person does some fast and aggressive backing up to park in a parking space.
Prince Edward and another man race their cars at high speeds through a town.
Paige passes a slow-moving tractor on the right (going off the shoulder) to get around it.
A TV commercial for one of those "wild girl" videos shows women flashing their breasts at the camera (mostly obscured by black boxes superimposed over their chests).
Eddie throws water into Soren's face to make him stop being addicted to a video game.

JUMP SCENES: None.

MUSIC (SCARY/TENSE): None.

MUSIC (INAPPROPRIATE): A song has a brief lyric about the singer having a beer.

PROFANITY: At least 1 "s" word, 2 asses, 1 slang term for sex ("going at it"), 2 craps, 1 damn, 1 hell, 2 uses of "Oh my God" and 1 use of "God."

SEX/NUDITY: We see that Prince Edward is a ladies man and has two young women kissing on him at the same time.
Paige's friend Stacey states that she slept with some cheesy, 45-year-old Italian man while in Europe.
Prince Edward sees a TV commercial for "The Girls of Wisconsin" that has various young women flashing their breasts at the camera. The commercial mostly blocks any explicit views (with black boxes across their chests, etc.) but some glimpses of breast flesh are briefly seen. He later talks about women there waiting to take off their tops.
There's a little bit of gay subtext comedy regarding how Eddie and Soren are viewed together (Soren taking off Eddie's jacket in a bar, a professor stating, "If this is a lover's thing," etc.), but we know that Eddie's straight (and assume Soren is just doing his job).
Paige's roommate, Beth, asks why she didn't take Eddie up to the (library) stacks and Paige mentions something about "going at it" up there.
Paige sees Eddie in just his boxers (and is embarrassed).
Paige's father tells Eddie that he (Eddie) will be sleeping in a room across from the parents and that they sleep with the door open (a reference to him thinking Eddie and Paige might fool around).
Paige and Eddie do some passionate, clothed kissing.
Paige's friend spots the obvious attraction between Paige and Eddie and writes a note to Paige that reads, "Stacks!" (referring to where she should take him to fool around). Paige then does and the two make out in an isolated part of the library, with passionate kissing, some kissing on the neck and some disrobing (his shirt comes off, as does her jacket). They're interrupted by the paparazzi, however, before anything else happens.
Eddie later tells Paige (about their making out), "This isn't my first indiscretion."
We see some brief flashbacks to Paige and Eddie passionately making out.
Eddie makes a comment about a relative being a 47-year-old virgin in diapers.
Paige and Eddie do some brief, and clothed passionate kissing while lying on the ground.
Eddie and Paige briefly do some passionate, clothed kissing.

SMOKING: None.

TENSE FAMILY SCENES: Prince Edward briefly gets into a tiff with his mother about him going to America.
12-year-old Arabella is concerned about her father who appears sick.
Eddie gets a call from his mother that his father is very ill.
We see the King in bed and looking rather ill (Eddie is at his bedside).

TOPICS TO TALK ABOUT: The life and duties of royal family members, such as when Eddie's mother tells Paige that if she's to become the queen, that she has to sacrifice who she is for who she needs to be for the country.
Paige seeming concerned/upset that she's the last single (at least not engaged) woman she knows.
Love and falling for someone from a faraway land.
Affairs of the heart vs. academic and future professional practicalities.

VIOLENCE: A guy pushes Eddie to make him leave a bar.
A guy pushes Eddie down to the ground of a racetrack. We then see some brief but purposeful bumping of racing lawnmowers. After the race, that guy punches Eddie to the ground, but when Eddie gets up to retaliate, a bunch of other guys rush the puncher and tackle him to the ground (where Eddie then joins in struggling with him -- somewhat played for comedy).
We briefly see footage from a first person shooter video game where Soren mows down some characters on the screen with an animated weapon.

Reviewed March 11, 2004 / Posted April 2, 2004

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