What a Girl Wants
What a Girl Wants ★★½ 2003 (PG)
Another movie intended for the tweenie girl set ala “The Princess Diaries.” Spunky Daphne Reynolds (Bynes) lives in Manhattan with her single bohemian mom Libby (Preston). Daphne has never met her Dad, a once-adventurous English lord, Sir Henry Dashwood (Firth), who has gone all staid and stuffy. So Daph takes off for London to introduce herself. Henry's got a political career to think about so the arrival of this brash American teen is a less than happy occasion, especially to Henry's fiancee, manipulative Glynnis (Chacellor) and her snobby daughter Clarissa (Cole). But you just know that Daphne will get everything she wants (including this really cute English boy). Adapted from a play and previously filmed as 1958's “The Reluctant Debutante” with Sandra Dee. 104m/C VHS, DVD . US Amanda Bynes, Colin Firth, Kelly Preston, Eileen Atkins, Anna Chancellor, Jonathan Pryce, Oliver James, Christina Cole, Sylvia Syms, Ben Scholfield; D: Dennie Gordon; W: Elizabeth Chandler, Jenny Bicks; C: Andrew Dunn; M: Rupert Gregson-Williams.