剧情梗概

　　15岁的米娅得知自己的父亲原来是吉尼维亚的王子,而自己竟成为了该国唯一的王位继承人。在16岁生日之际，她必须面临抉择:是搬到吉尼维亚去当公主呢，还是继续留在曼哈顿和艺术家的母亲生活在一起。同时,米娅也不得不接受严厉的祖母给她上的难以忍受的公主礼仪课……

　　Synopsis

　　Fifteen-year-old Mia discovers that her father is the Prince of Genovia and she is the sole heir to the throne. She must decide, by her sixteenth birthday, whether she will live as a princess and move to Genovia or remain in Manhattan where she lives with her artist mom. She must suffer through the indignity of princess lessons at the hands of her stern grandmother...

　　评论

　　Julie Andrews不是第一次出演这类题材的电影.早在50年代,在经典音乐片<<窈窕淑女>>中,她扮演的百老汇底层少女,经过Henry Higgins教授的调教,成为了一个举止幽雅得体的贵族式小姐.

　　几十年之后的今天,<<公主日记>>却令Andrews扮演一个当年Higgins式的角色.在戏中,她扮演了吉尼维亚的女王,宣布下一人继承人将是外孙女米娅.而十几岁的旧金山女孩米娅却从未想到长期离散的父亲竟有皇家血统.

　　Comments

　　Julie Andrews has been here before. Back in the '50s, she played Eliza Doolittle in the classic musical "My Fair Lady," making Broadway history as the lower-class lass who passes as an aristocrat after Professor Henry Higgins teaches her to talk and walk like a lady.

　　Decades later, "The Princess Diaries" lets Andrews (see interview) try the Higgins role herself. Here, she plays the queen of Genovia, who has decided Genovia's next ruler should be her granddaughter, Mia, a San Francisco teenager who's never been told that her long-estranged father had royal blood.

　　Mia knows little about Europe, and nothing about the tricks of running a country, but the queen is willing to mold her manners, coach her diction, dictate her wardrobe, and do anything needed to make her a proper Old World princess. The job carries plenty of perks - a limo is mighty tempting to a girl whose Mustang can barely make it up a hill - but Mia's a shy type who dreads the spotlight a royal perch would bring. Can her well-meaning grandma put her on the road to monarchy? Or do her Californian values run so deep that Henry Higgins himself couldn't change them? "The Princess Diaries" unfolds its story from Mia's point of view, aiming at teen viewers who'll identify with her identity crisis and with the everyday details of adolescent life - quarrels with mom , rivalries, and romances at school - that the movie convincingly paints. A well-chosen cast helps the picture come alive: Andrews as the queen; Anne Hathaway as her undecided granddaughter; Caroline Goodall as Mia's mom; Hector Elizondo as a royal assistant; and Heather Matarazzo in a perfect performance as Mia's closest pal. Only the boys in Mia's life tend to look like generic teenpic characters.

　　With its leisurely pace and unfancy filmmaking, "The Princess Diaries" is a likable throwback to an old tradition of pictures from the Disney studio. While most of today's youth-targeted movies unleash bombardments of visual effects and pop-culture distractions, director Garry Marshall spins this yarn with a quiet dignity that Genovia's staid queen would applaud.

　　The film isn't backward-looking in its attitudes toward modern society, though. Two or three decades ago, Mia would surely have ended the story by refusing her royal opportunity in the name of American values like democracy and individualism. By contrast, the Mia of 2001 decides to grab the job. How else could a middle-class girl get enough influence and power to make the world listen to her ideas?

　　相关词汇表

　　heir n. 继承人

　　stern adj. 严厉的

　　indignity n. 侮辱,无礼

　　Broadway n. 百老汇

　　lass n. 少女

　　aristocrat n. 艺术家

　　estrange v. 使……隔离

　　mold v. 对……产生影响

　　limo n. 豪华轿车

　　perch n. 高位

　　monarchy n. 君主国

　　adolescent adj. 青少年的

　　throwback n. 倒退

　　unleash v. 发动

　　spin v. 编造

　　yarn n. 故事