What A Girl Wants

Starring Amanda Bynes, Colin Firth, Kelly Preston

Directed by… What A Girl Wants

Starring Amanda Bynes, Colin Firth, Kelly Preston

Directed by Dennie Gordon 1/2

“What a Girl Wants” is a movie most girls could live without. They may want to see it, but once the opening credits roll, it’s quite apparent that this movie is the same old thing.

Daphne Reynolds (Amanda Bynes), a spunky teen-ager, has everything she needs in life except a father. Living with her musician mother in Chinatown, every birthday Daphne wishes she could meet her dad. At age 17, she decides to take a chance and fly to London alone to find him. Colin Firth plays her father, Lord Henry Bradshaw, a very important politician in London running for a seat on Parliament. When the two finally meet, suddenly, the politician’s daughter he never knew begins ruining his political career.

A typical case of fish-out-of-water, semi-funny hijinks that last an almost endless two hours, the same movie probably came out last summer with a different title. The actors offer nothing to the recycled plot; merely OK, anyone could have performed just as well as these actors.

Bynes, most known for her work on Nickelodeon, delivers most of her lines with sitcom-induced silliness. Surprisingly, Kelly Preston, who plays Daphne’s mother, stands out as one of the best actors in the film. She’s not always on the screen, but when she appears, her presence is noticeable. The interaction between Daphne’s mother and father provides another high point for the movie. Although not entirely believable, the emotion behind the scenes is poignant.

But though the characters have their moments, as the movie travels down Been-There-Done-That-Boulevard, the audience loses interest. The middle of “What A Girl Wants” especially bores its audience, and the movie doesn’t pick up until the end, but by then, it’s too late. Fortunately, the elements of music and fashion in the movie distract the audience from the lack of entertaining the film itself accomplishes.

The overall feeling surrounding “What a Girl Wants” is indifference. It’s not good, it’s not especially bad, it’s just something that’s already been done many times. So if you’re looking for a movie to stare at and eat popcorn in front of, don’t hesitate to go. But it’s easy enough to achieve the same effect with a bowl of microwaveable Pop Secret and a blank television screen. Both methods are equally as exciting.