The movie has the makings of a fairy tale: Dashing, handsome Eddie meets and falls for pretty, ordinary Paige Morgan. Of course it helps that Eddie happens to be the Crown Prince Edvard Valdemar Dangaard, a fact unknown to Paige.
Prince Edvard is every inch the irresponsible heir to the throne. To the utter disappointment of his parents, the King and Queen of Denmark, he whiles away his time racing cars and chasing women. In short, Prince Edvard is a paparazzi's dream.
Paige is from Wisconsin; a simple girl with a simple dream: To enter Johns Hopkins and work for Doctors Without Borders. She is every parent's dream child - intelligent, independent and responsible.
Their worlds collide when Prince Edvard, not quite ready to take over the 'family business' yet, decides to fly to Wisconsin, where he hears the girls are wild. He poses as Eddie, a foreign exchange student, and has a disastrous initial encounter with Paige: He, thinking she's just another wild college girl; She, adamant that he's a 'royal pain in the ass'.
The two get long eventually, as is to be expected from people who are constantly thrown into each other's company. They got along too well, in fact, that they find themselves falling in love. It is during this time that the now mature Eddie is recalled to Denmark to take on his princely duties, as his father is terminally ill. Stunned, Paige has to decide whether to stay and pursue her dreams or abandon her future and follow Eddie across the Atlantic.
The movie may be classified as a romantic comedy but it manages to be more than that with its theme of female empowerment. It's easy enough to say that this movie is a fairy tale: An ordinary girl finally meets her prince charming, who, in actuality, is a prince. But the movie is not your ordinary fairy tale because we have a character, in the person of Paige Morgan, who does not dream of castles or princes, but dreams of medical school and working in places that aren't exactly tourist destinations. In fact, Eddie himself admitted that he finds Paige intimidating; he, of the royal blood, who has had a fair share of intimidating people.
The fact that Paige and Eddie ended up together in the end does not lessen the female empowerment theme the movie carries. The DVD has an alternate ending which, I later learned from director Martha Coolidge in her commentary, was the originally intended ending. In the alternate, Paige turned her back on Eddie, returned to Wisconsin, and realized her dreams. Some, and even I on occasions, think that this is the appropriate ending given the movie's strong pull towards women who realize their dreams. But Coolidge decided to have the lead characters back together because of their strong love for each other. And I must say I totally agree, not because I'm a sucker for happy endings. The movie laid down the love foundation perfectly that the fairy tale ending looked like the originally intended ending and the alternate, well, just an alternate. Besides, the prince was willing to compromise so all is well. It is possible to have your cake and eat it too.
Another factor for the fairy tale ending would be the sizzling chemistry between Julia Stiles and Luke Mably. Anyone who saw this movie cannot just ignore the obvious on-screen attraction and opt for the alternate ending. I surfed the net for news of an off-screen romance between the leads but Stiles already has a boyfriend and it isn't Mably. Still, I was thrilled when I came across this interview on Mably:
Thinking back, what’s your favorite memory from shooting "The Prince & Me?"
Lots of it. There was so much to do in the movie, but I really enjoyed doing the stuff with Julia. I really miss seeing her face every day. I think she’s a really special actress, a very exciting actress to work with. (Source)
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