What A Girl Wants

Among the current crop of female child actresses already or about to turn into hot properties for their impressive talent and major sex symbols for their knock-out looks is Amanda Bynes. Its an impressive class that includes the names Keira Knightley, Lindsay Lohan, Hilary Duff and Kristen Bell. But Bynes is one actress who has already reached television stardom through her shows "The Amanda Show" and "What I Like About You" and at the age of 16 she traveled to Europe to appear in a movie appropriately titled "American Girl." Before it was released (in early 2003) its title had been changed to "What a Girl Wants" and I sat there in a movie theater knowing little about it. I knew it had been filmed in my home country and starred Colin Firth who had been so good in "Bridget Jones' Diary," I came away impressed by the comic timing and the looks of an actress that would obviously in years-to-come set movie screens on fire. "What a Girl Wants" is at its heart a story about a girl searching to find herself. Bynes plays Daphne Reynolds and her mother Libby is played by Mrs. John Travolta (Kelly Preston). The two live in New York City and Daphne spends her time helping out at weddings where her mother is a singer and longing to know a father she has never met. It is observing the father-daughter dance at one of these weddings (where the filmakers used real fathers and daughters) that our hearts go out to Daphne and she determines a drastic plan of action - traveling to London and confronting her absent father. The movie has it all - heart, laughter, suspense, romance. Its culture clash theme has been done before and better (Crocodile Dundee for example) but we have so much emotion invested in Daphne's plight that we cannot help but become engrossed in this movie. Jonathon Pryce proves that his villainous turn in "Tomorrow Never Dies" was no fluke by pulling out a great performance here as the political advisor of Daphne's father (Firth). Thing is, Firth's character -Henry - is running for political office and Pryce sees Daphne as a liability to his boss' career and her presence an obstacle to his becoming father-in-law to the wealthy and politically powerful Henry. This DVD has an impressive number of special features, the crown jewels of which are the two scene specific audio commentaries, one by Bynes and the second by the director and two writers. I Liked how the subtitles automatically come up when commentaries are playing. If you have only seen it once it helps keep track of where you are in movie. Light, fluffy, exuberant Amanda Bynes chats about working with the other actors, and how intimidated she was by some of the people she worked with. In her commentary she mentions how the weather was when a scene was shot - it was hot, hunid, raining etc Obviously Bynes has a great deal of respect for Firth and Preston and almost inevitably Bynes spends a lot of time talking about clothes - big boots when hopping over the wall, commenting on how ugly the dress to a ball is etc. Bynes literally coos over emotional moments. Hers is a fun commentary, but there are some gaps. I liked the recounting of anecdotal moments such as her account of being mobbed by fans on bridge that crew could not get permission to close for shooting. On the second commentary director Dennie Gordon joined by the two writers Jenny Bicks and Elizabeth Chandler (the Amazon listing is incorrect in identifying them as actors). As one might expect this is more technical in details and as such serves as a nice contrast to Bynes solo track. The writers discuss such matters as how long they worked on it, the original inspiration and discuss different titles (the original title "American Girl" is mentioned on both tracks). The director talks about how wonderful the actors are and seems particularly pleased with Bynes performance. Overall this is a very enjoyable family film and a great DVD package.

I love this movie . This movie makes me cry .

Cute movie. I’ve watched several times.

Very good movie. Light and entertaining.

Favorite movie with Amanda Bynes!

i have always enjoyed it. its so old, colin firth is second billing! family, fun, all the right stuff... feel good story.

always love

Love Colin Firth. He's hysterical in it. Very weepy. Seen a zillion times.

みなさんのレビュー同様、映画はとても面白くてオススメです！スカッと元気、ほんわり温かくなる映画です。 そして特別なオススメは・・・、DVDの中にある「ギャラリー」（特典映像）の中に 「ファッションとエチケット」（9分）というコーナーがあります。 この一番最後に「オマケ」ＮＧ映像が２本だけ入っています、 これがめちゃめちゃ面白いです！ほんの数十秒ですが、とにかく大爆笑なのでこれは絶対に見てください！ （ただし、ケリー・プレストン」のプロフィールを知らないと笑えないかも） 映画中で悪役だったジョナサン・プライスですが、このたった数十秒で大好きになりました！！

What a Girl Wants is a delightful love story for the true/hopeless romantic. I really enjoyed this film about love lost and rebuilding broken relationships. I still don't know how I missed this one in the theatre! The acting is really superb, especially by Colin Firth who is outstanding, and he and Kelly Preston have such excellent chemistry. The story has such a good balance of humour and touching moments, and it is very enjoyable with a good message. It also ties up all the loose ends nicely and leaves you with a happy feeling. It sort of reminds me of the Parent Trap a bit as well as Cinderella or the Princess Diaries. The scenes from Britain and Morocco are very nice and add to the cultural flavour of the film. I also like how songs with such fitting lyrics are used to add to the emotion in the storyline. In terms of the acting, it is amazing how much Colin Firth can say with his eyes!! It is interesting because in this film we see so many different moods for Henry Dashwood, and unlike his role as Mr. Darcy, Colin Firth smiles quite a bit. He has such a nice smile and actually looks more like his fellow actor and brother Jonathan than I had previously thought (excellent actor too esp. in Victoria & Albert). During this film, because we see so many different sides of the character, I came away feeling that I knew Colin Firth a little better, even though it is about a fictional person. Kelly Preston is really good as Libby and shows such touching emotion in her role as the woman who only ever loved one man. Amanda Bynes also does an excellent job and she is a great comedic actress. There are some famous British stars in this film including Anna Chancellor, Eileen Atkins and Jonathan Pryce who also add class and talent to their supporting roles. Libby Reynolds is a singer who decides to go to see the world and meets Henry, her Knight in Shining Armour, in Morocco. "They fall hopelessly and passionately in love" and are married in a Moroccan wedding ceremony. They plan to make it official when they return to London, but his family and advisors get in the way. Henry is a man of Title and with the sudden death of his father, he is Lord Dashwood. His advisor (Jonathan Pryce) tricks Libby into thinking that Henry wants her to leave, and convinces Henry that Libby leaves because she has another man. Unknown to Henry, Libby is pregnant with their daughter Daphne. For 17 years Libby and Daphne live in China Town in New York. Daphne works as a waitress at wedding receptions where her mother's band performs, and she feels sad when she watches the father-daughter dances (I cried during that part) and wishes for that kind of relationship with HER father. Every birthday Daphne always makes a wish that her father will come to find her, but her mother doesn't tell Henry because she is afraid her daughter will get hurt in the same way she did. Daphne always feels that part of her is missing because she doesn't know her father, and so when she is finished high school she goes to London to find him and also finds romance (Oliver James) along the way. Her father is engaged to the daughter of the advisor who got rid of Libby and is starting a political career. Eventually, Henry discovers what his true priorities are, and what he is willing to sacrifice to do the right thing and find true happiness. I would definitely recommend this film. There are a few mildly offensive words used, but everything else is as clean as a whistle. The worst for me was the bejesus comment. However, if you love romantic films, especially with a British flavour, you will love this movie. It presents hope and that our dreams can be even better than we imagine.

Funny feel good movie

C'est très réaliste et les acteurs sont très bons,connaître son propre père sait idéal

Mir gefällt der Film.