What a Girl Wants [G]

For Daphne’s entire life, it has always been her and Libby, her mother. But when Daphne turns 17, she makes a decision to fly to England and meet her aristocratic father, Lord Henry Dashwood. Soon Daphne realises that she’s a long way from home and in a world where her vibrant personality has no place. So now, she faces a tough challenge: changing to fit into her dad’s world or remaining true to herself and going down with a fight. 

Another little feel-good family movie within the same ballpark as Freaky Friday and The Princess Diaries, What a Girl Wants is a fun little film with memorable performances, a nice story, and a good script. Admittedly not in the repertoire for guys, but for a quiet girls’ afternoon in, it’s pretty damn good. 

For Daphne’s entire life, it has always been her and Libby, her mother. But when Daphne turns 17, she makes a decision to fly to England and meet her aristocratic father, Lord Henry Dashwood. Soon Daphne realises that she’s a long way from home and in a world where her vibrant and uniquely free personality has no place. So now, she faces a tough challenge: changing herself to fit into her dad’s world or remaining true to herself and going down with a fight. 

Admittedly, the story is really a tweeny sort of tale, harbouring strong and somewhat clichéd messages about natural change, and being true to oneself. But underneath that, there are some more natural themes that strike the heartstrings of the audience: the main one being the natural bond between father and daughter and how special and really beautiful it is. 

As I mentioned before, the film has a good script, which is what I think you need in these sorts of films because the story and actors alone aren’t really enough to pull it through. The script for this film was both witty and heartfelt, treating us to memorable lines such as “why are you trying so hard to fit in when you’re born to stand out?” and “forgive me if I don’t give a flying fart in space what you think!”. See? It’s balanced well between the funny and the emotional. It’s good. 

Then we have the memorable performances from both Amanda Bynes and Colin Firth. Amanda is very charismatic and completely free-spirited. She’s the girl you want to be. She just exudes a vibe of genuine coolness (the positive sense of the word, obviously). Then we have Colin being all type-casted and Mr. Darcy-esque for the first part of the film, but then going through a great change… with the help of some leather pants and some awesome air-guitar rocking out. Seriously, watch out for that! Best part of the film! 

Starring Kelly Preston, Eileen Atkins, Anna Chancellor, Oliver James, Sylvia Sims, Christina Cole, and Jonathan Pryce, What A Girl Wants is a nice and heart-warming little film filled with romance, different societies, glamour, change, realisation, and comedy. It’s a very nice little film to come back to once in a while.