Dear Diary,

Just got back from seeing The Princess Diaries and feel the urge to jot down my concerns. It’s another movie where teenage girls look like a bunch of unfeeling idiots or worse. Honestly, dear diary, if I didn’t know some wonderful young women in that age group, I probably would avoid all adolescent females because of the way they are portrayed here and in other flicks like American Pie and Josie and the Pussycats. Is it possible Sissy Spacek started it all by wreaking bloody revenge on her classmates for making fun of her in Carrie?

In this new film, the predictable plot features movie newcomer Anne Hathaway as a klutzy high school student in San Francisco. She can’t even get through a speech without getting sick and vomiting. Do the other girls empathize with her? Of course not. Only her annoying friend Heather Matarazzo (Welcome to the Dollhouse) offers a helping hand. The others tease her about her pitiful performance as well as about her appearance. Hathaway’s bushy eyebrows, unkempt hair, and horn-rimmed glasses provide them with plenty of fodder.

What happens next really pushed my buttons, dear diary, causing me to vent on these pages instead of writing about my other adventures today. When Oscar-winner Julie Andrews (Mary Poppins) enters the movie as Hathaway’s grandmother, who just happens to be the Queen of Genovia, she thinks Hathaway can’t inherit the throne without improving herself, mostly the way she looks. That’s when the elitist queen calls in beauty expert Larry Miller (Nutty Professor 2: The Klumps) to perform his cosmetic magic on her granddaughter.

I realize scenes like this worked in Miss Congeniality when Michael Caine transformed Sandra Bullock’s plain FBI Agent into a glamorous beauty contestant. That made sense. One must be beautiful to enter such a contest. But how gorgeous does a person need to be to run a country? Golda Meier comes to mind. Okay, maybe she did resemble Ingrid Bergman a little, but I’ll bet she didn’t spend much time worrying about glamorous make-up, fashionable clothes, and the latest hairstyle.

A similar theme in My Fair Lady was also acceptable to me. However, Eliza Doolittle changed much more than her appearance as a result of Professor Henry Higgins’ training. She became more trusting, developed cultural interests, and so forth. Andrews had to be painfully aware of this vast difference, having played Eliza for so many years in the Broadway production. I think that’s why she seems so unhappy in a rip off of the Henry Higgins role here.

Yes, there are a few funny bits in the movie, but I’d seen them all before in the previews. Hathaway shows comic potential in a couple of slapstick moments --- such as when she falls off a chair while trying to sit like an elegant lady. Also, I loved a brief dance number by Andrews and the wonderful Hector Elizondo (Runaway Bride), who played the queen’s loyal assistant. These veteran actors brighten up the screen momentarily and made me wonder what they would’ve been like co-starring in The King and I instead of Yul Brynner and Deborah Kerr --- or perhaps even now in a senior version of Dirty Dancing.

That’s all for now, diary. Time to phone my teenage granddaughters and remind them how terrific they are.

(Released by Walt Disney Pictures and rated "G" for general audiences --- all ages admitted.)