The Prince and Me starring Julia Stiles (Mona Lisa Smile) and newcomer Luke Malby opened in theaters two weeks ago and delivered a hilarious performance for all of the wrong reasons. The story is very simple. Stiles is Paige Morgan, a hard-working, middle-class farm girl who happens to be also an ambitious pre-med student at the University of Wisconsin. During her senior year, she meets the spoiled, self-centered Prince Edward of Denmark, played by Malby, after he is motivated to attend her college from seeing a Girls Gone Wild advertisement.

After a rocky start, the two finally get some time together when Stiles takes Malby home for Thanksgiving. With the time alone, the two fall in love and go back to school as a couple; however, Stiles soon discovers that he is a prince and rejects him because he betrayed her trust.
Obviously, the two reconcile and Stiles goes back to Denmark with Malby to be his queen. However, at this point the movie takes a twist, as Stiles grapples with her decision to give up her old life.

The film did have some fun parts to it-the annual Thanksgiving tractor race in Paige's hometown involving Edward and Paige's brothers was vaguely interesting. Also, the movie had a very pleasant score filled with quality pop music; however, in its acting and pacing the film left a great deal to be desired.

Stiles rehashes her role as a female with a hard exterior but sensitive core, which she has played previously in 10 Things I Hate About You and Save the Last Dance with the character of Paige. This constant typecasting made the ending slightly predictable despite the attempts at modernizing the fairy tale. If they really wanted to update the ending, Stiles would have gone to Johns Hopkins, opened a private practice and a 401(k), and then lived in the city for a couple of years.

Malby played his stereotyped role just as it was supposed to be. Hopefully he can avoid falling into the same trap that Stiles has and will be able to have roles beyond this archetype in future films.

While both actors played their roles well, they had very little onscreen chemistry and some scenes often felt a little awkward. This was especially apparent when they had to do anything physical, or maybe that was because they just kept teasing Stiles taking off her top.
Also, the third section of the film was also exceptionally long and had too many points where it could have ended. The problem was the introduction of several new conflicts and resolutions at the end of the movie, which gave an audience a feeling of "OK, when is this thing going to end?" Had the film flowed better, it wouldn't have been so awkward to watch.

The film did have one redeeming artistic quality, there was a lot of Shakespeare involved in the film, which gave it a little more class than the average romantic comedy. The script uses Shakespearean sonnets as a running theme throughout the movie as a message to Stiles' character about the meaning of true love. The message, that love blinds you from reason, becomes the encouragement Paige needs to leave the United States and fly to Denmark to be with her prince.

There is also a great deal of humor in the film, because Stiles' character Paige, a science-oriented student, hates the Shakespeare course she is required to take and spends a lot of time talking about how completely useless it is. It is ironic, considering that Stiles has made a career out of Shakespearean movies.

Overall, the film was not worth the ticket price and it would only be recommendable for those who want to go see a movie just to make fun of it. Otherwise, I would recommend sparing yourself the 90 minutes of PG-13, chick-flick fun.