Mother Mary, The Devil Wears Prada 2, The Odyssey, Verity, The End of Oak Street. The Year of Our Lord 2026 is a big one for Anne Hathaway, who kicked things off in style with that gorgeous dress at the Oscars. We’ve had a hauntingly beautiful fashionista tale, and I guess The Devil Wears Prada 2 was okay, too. I’m gearing up for The Odyssey by perusing various retellings, and I may read my first Colleen Hoover book and find out what that nonsense is all about. But first, back to where it all began for Anne, once a beloved everygirl chosen from many for the role of a lifetime.
After appearing in 22 episodes of Get Real from 1999 to 2000, Hathaway made her film debut in The Princess Diaries, the first movie based on the book series by Meg Cabot. And, quite frankly, 15-year-old Amelia “Mia” Thermopolis gets a rotten deal in this story. Her high school existence in San Francisco was miserable, but whose isn’t? She was surviving the trials of many an awkward teenager, but deserved as much time as she needed to come into her own. In the meantime, she clearly had a life full of personality and passions, rock climbing and music, with a loving, quirky mother and a rebellious ride-or-die best friend.
What Mia did not need was for a grandmother who had never contacted her before to show up and tell her that she has to grow up NOW because a small country depends upon it, for only vaguely explained reasons. Mia is coerced into “princess lessons,” a makeover because her frizzy curls and glasses just won’t do, and shouldering a legacy that she has no reason to care about. Queen Clarisse is still an endearing character because, though she initially prioritizes the crown over Mia by trying to convince her to be the heir, she shows she can let loose from time to time and eventually gives her blessing to Mia to abdicate.
But Mia’s story has ultimately stood the test of time because it is about her taking a leap of faith and believing in what she can be. She shouldn’t have had to decide at 15 years old that this is what she was going to do with her life, and maybe, were she a different person and this a different genre, this transition to queen-in-training would have been traumatic, and she would have come to regret her choice. The Princess Diaries, as an adaptation, perfectly strings together the signifiers of Mia’s insecurities with how she realizes she wants to excel at this. The perspective gained from just having bigger things going on in her life than high school drama emboldens her, and she starts striking back against her bullies, including sort of accidentally injuring the jock on the baseball field and delivering an impressively eloquent comeback speech to the cheerleader.
The cast of this movie is iconic in the way only the cast of a 2000s rom-com coming-of-age flick can be. Hathaway obviously nails the mix of snarky, nervous, klutzy, charming, and tough as Mia. Julie Andrews is a living legend who has been perfectly cast in her golden years in roles where only her Julie Andrews-ness could have elevated them (also see Eloise at Christmastime and Enchanted). Pre-breakout Mandy Moore is as perfect a mean girl as there ever was as Lana, while Sandra Oh is hilarious as the dramatically sarcastic vice-principal. I think Hector Elizondo, as Joe, the royal family’s head of security, may have invented the archetype of Jonathan Banks from Breaking Bad years before Breaking Bad. And Heather Matarazzo. Oh, Heather. I still wholeheartedly choose to believe that you coined the term “Berzerkeley.”
Matarazzo’s Lilly gets to say the line that unexpectedly moved me on my latest rewatch: “You being a princess is kind of a miracle.” This line captures how The Princess Diaries is really a movie about dreams. Mia’s life is full of them when her grandma is still hidden away in a limo, ominously driving by during the opening credits, looming over San Francisco, before everything changes. Mia dreams about being better at something than being invisible, getting through an oral presentation alive, being adored by the boy she adores. Then her dreams shift to being able to make sense of her heritage as she navigates her newfound relationship with her grandmother and contemplates the memory of her father.
Lilly, who is trying to champion a thousand causes through her cable show that only reaches 12 people, points out to Mia that the power to effect change has amazingly fallen into her lap. Lilly seems like she should (rightfully) be critical of a monarchy in general, but she believes in Mia. The Princess Diaries doesn’t get into the specific politics of how the Renaldi dynasty is actually doing any good by existing, but it encapsulates the essence of being a teenager who has no power to fix a broken world, fantasizing about what it would be like to suddenly arrive at that power, which resonates deeply today. Mia’s dreams about what she can do are nebulous, but she reaches her apotheosis because of hope above all.
Some other notes: I would be remiss not to mention that this to-date two-movie franchise is built on the chemistry between Hathaway and Andrews, the perfect grandmother-granddaughter team who are matched as opposites but bring out shared, hidden qualities in one another. Additionally, when they didn’t know they were going to get a second movie (supposedly a third), I’m impressed with the restraint they showed in the subplot of Clarisse and Joe’s feelings for each other. Their dynamic is sophisticated and simmering, and Clarisse’s inner circle of staffers all seem to know the truth. It completes the complex portrait of the queen as a storied character who has lived a very busy and magnificent life, but all the while, has never chased after the one she loves.
Kudos to Chris Pine and Raven-Symoné for their contributions in 2004’s The Princess Diaries 2: Royal Engagement, but the grandeur of the (still great) follow-up can’t compete with the soul found in the original.
The Princess Diaries
2001
dir. Garry Marshall
115 min.
Screens Thursday, 5/21, 7:00 @ Coolidge Corner Theatre
Afterparty to follow (with themed drinks!) in the Coolidge’s Education and Community Engagement Center
Part of the ongoing series: Rewind!
