Heroine realizes her happily ever after in 'Princess Diaries 2'

What do we know about princesses? Well, for starters, they live in big fancy castles, they have maids to wait on them hand and foot, they own lots of pretty-if-prim clothes and loads of sparkly jewelry and, oh yeah, they must have a Prince Charming in the picture.

MOVIE REVIEW

THE PRINCESS DIARIES 2: ROYAL ENGAGEMENT

DIRECTOR: Garry Marshall

CAST: Julie Andrews, Anne Hathaway, Hector Elizondo, John Rhys-Davies

RUNNING TIME: 115 minutes

RATING: G

WHERE: Bella Bottega 11, Cinema 17, Crossroads, East Valley, Edmonds, Factoria, Galleria, Gateway 8, Grand Cinemas, Issaquah, Kirkland Parkplace 6, Meridian 16, Metro, Mountlake, Parkway Plaza 12, Valley Drive-In, Woodinville 12

GRADE: B-

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Fortunately, during the course of "The Princess Diaries 2: Royal Engagement" -- the sequel to the tween hit -- we learn that at least one of the above shouldn't have to hold true for the modern-day royal girl. (And you can bet she ain't gonna give up her stack of tiaras.)

It's five years since the last movie left off and Mia (the girl who abruptly discovered she was royalty to a country that looks not unlike our own city of Leavenworth), has graduated from college and arrived in Genovia in time to assume rulership as the queen retires.

But an ancient Genovian law states that a princess must be married in order to become queen. And a scheming viscount (John Rhys-Davies) will have his own nephew crowned as king if Mia is unable to find a husband within 30 days.

"What kind of person agrees to an arranged marriage?" fumes Mia (Anne Hathaway).

Well, her grandma -- played by Julie Andrews -- for one. The message here is: A true queen does what she must for her country. And so begins a hunt for Mia's would-be husband.

As in the first film, Hathaway does a nice job portraying the awkward girl thrust into a role she never thought possible. The actress deftly maneuvers the character through that uncomfortable place in life where a woman finds herself all grown up and yet still struggling to find her footing in the adult world.

The teens and tweens this movie targets will certainly love watching Mia enjoy the spoils of princess-ship. (Big slumber parties. Big drawers full of jewels.) Older viewers and fans of the always-elegant Andrews will enjoy her brief return to singing (her first onscreen performance after a disastrous throat surgery destroyed her four-octave range) and the development of the queen's relationship with security chief Joe (Hector Elizondo).

Alas, this movie becomes sort of middling fare as the would-be Prince Charming (played by Chris Pine) is neither charming nor particularly interesting as he journeys from scheming crown stealer to love-struck suitor. By the end of the movie we're supposed to like him and yet ... we can't really summon any feelings for him at all. He's simply a royal blank.

Meanwhile, Garry Marshall hands in some oddly sloppy direction, especially during an opening series of scenes in which he purposely doesn't allow the audience to see the now grown-up Mia, saving her debut as an adult for a surprise that is, in the end, not even remotely surprising. And real-life adults likely will chafe under a script that feels compelled to explain so much obvious detail to its audience. When will these writers learn that their young audience is smarter than they are?

Ultimately, while this flick is hardly a feminist manifesto (Mia tends to behave like a world-class moron as she practically throws herself at the guy she has a crush on), the girl power message is certainly laudable enough: A woman doesn't need a prince or a king in order to rule with wisdom and grace.

Fans of the first "Princess Diaries" will find enough laughs and diamonds in the rough to sustain them on their way to this important moral.

Winda Benedetti is a Seattle-based free-lance writer who can be reached at WindaBenedetti@hotmail.com.