You will have to be a ‘tweener to forgive the lax spirit of “Princess Diaries 2: The Royal Engagement,” a half-hearted sequel aimed at the young female mall crowd. This time-killer exists solely to move units of the eventual DVD release.
In the 2001 original, a happy-go-lucky American teenager, Mia (Anne Hathaway) learned she was of royal blood. In fact, she was due to inherit the crown of the European country of Genovia. Her grandmother, and royal highness of Genovia (Julie Andrews), aided Mia in her new life.
We catch up on this in the first minute of “Princess Diaries 2,” and Mia informs us that the big romance from the first movie is now kaput. “We’re just friends now,” she says, dumping that inconvenient plot hindrance and opening the field for royal suitors.
And Genovia needs royal suitors. Turns out a meanie in the Parliament (oh, why must imperial rulers be bothered by these democratic niceties?) points out a little-known clause in the Genovian constitution stipulating that a ruler must be married. Or something like that.
So Mia has one month to find a husband. She’s advised by her American buddy (Heather Matarazzo, virtually a walk-on role) and bodyguard (Hector Elizondo).
There’s also a pretender (Chris Pine) to the throne. Wouldn’t you know it, he is a hunkalicious young man just about Mia’s age.
The movie has the same stars and same director, Garry Marshall (the “Pretty Woman” guy), as the first “Princess Diaries.” That one was no classic, but at least its leading lady, Anne Hathaway, was as cute as a button, and the regal Julie Andrews made for a classy piece of casting.
Here, Hathaway seems to slide off the screen, except to find increasingly dumber ways of saying, “This is so cool,” or “Shut up.”
Julie Andrews at least gets to sing a bit. This is somewhat historic, simply because Andrews’ crystal-clear singing voice was damaged after a long stage run in “Victor/Victoria” and throat surgery. She doesn’t sound like the Julie Andrews of old, and the song is unworthy of her (she’s joined in a duet by TV star Raven), but it’s a rather nice interlude nevertheless.
Marshall has a try-anything approach as director, which might account for the slapdash feel of the picture. The film at its best wants to be like a really girly slumber party, but that may not be the best material for Marshall.
And the plot. It’s one of those things that common sense would have solved in the first 10 minutes, but it takes two hours to get to a conclusion. Either that or Julie Andrews could have used her royal powers to send the political naysayers to the guillotine, end of story. Now that would have been something new, especially for Julie Andrews.
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