This year, the world watched as Prince William and Kate Middleton tied
the knot. Royal weddings have a way of capturing the public’s
imagination. That’s certainly the case in The Prince and Me II: The Royal Wedding. In this 2006 sequel to the charming Julia Stiles rom-com The Prince and Me,
Paige (now played by little-known Kam Heskin) is happily engaged to
Prince Edvard (Luke Mably) of Denmark and studying at a Danish
university while wedding preparations proceed. But complications are
about to come her way…
The Prince and Me II is the first
of three superfluous sequels to a cute stand-alone film. The premise is a
fairly tired one. A scheming relative digs up an obscure law
necessitating that the prince marries someone of royal blood. Edvard
already is feeling the pinch because law also dictates that he must
marry by his next birthday, which is coming up quickly. He knows who he
wants to marry. But will the tug of duty lead him instead into the arms
of his conniving cousin Kirsten (Clemency Burton-Hill)?
While
Heskin is not as nuanced as Stiles, she does what she can as her decent
stand-in, and she and Mably make a fairly convincing couple. I wouldn’t
say the sparks are flying, but at least it’s plain they like each other.
Catherine Cyran, who also directed the third and fourth movies, takes
over the franchise here, and the movie has a definite made-for-TV
quality about it. While none of the major characters are children, this
definitely feels like more of a kids’ movie, with abundant slapstick and
a very simple storyline.
Burton-Hill alternates between extreme
sweetness and cattiness as the comely woman who used to be the prince’s
closest friend. While her father is clearly only interested in power
and money, it does seem as though Kirsten might have genuine feelings
for her childhood chum, so I couldn’t help feeling a bit sorry for her,
though her behavior become increasingly abhorrent as the story
progresses. Still, I found her performance the most engaging in the
movie. I also enjoyed Jonathan Firth as Soren, Edvard’s personal
assistant and Paige’s devoted friend, and his down-to-earth kindness and
clever ideas come to the rescue on more than one occasion. He’s played
by a different actor this time around too, but the change is not as
noticeable, at least without having seen the first one in several years.
The movie is quite pleasant to look at, with plenty of views of
royal architecture and gardens and the recurring appearance of blue
butterflies. I don’t know enough about Denmark to be able to say whether
there was much accuracy in the portrayal; perhaps it would have been
better to invent a country, as Meg Cabot did with The Princess Diaries.
It does make aspects of the country look a bit silly, but the
cinematography presents Denmark in a favorable light, though it was
filmed in the Czech Republic.
The fact that Paige is still
studying to be a doctor is an interesting point. The implication is that
when she becomes queen, her duties will be extensive, but nobody seems
to think that serving as both doctor and monarch will be too much to
juggle. The movie is careful to balance the traditional fairy tale
notion of a prince sweeping an ordinary girl off her feet with a more
modern sensibility, allowing Paige to continue pursuing her long-held
career goals. Paige never needs to choose between dreams, but if Edvard
truly loves her, he might need to abdicate. But can he bear to
relinquish his duty to his country if it comes to that?
The Prince and Me II
is a rather silly movie with several over-the-top sequences involving a
series of calamities. These are probably funniest for younger viewers,
who might also take away a worthwhile message about the value of
education and diligent study. While there’s a reason this went directly
to video, it’s still a fairly fun and family-friendly modern-day fairy
tale. For what it is, I’d say it works pretty well.
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