more on fairy tales

There is not so much on the telly, so I decided to scroll through my free on demand channels. The only movie I haven't seen? The Prince and Me.

See, now your esteem of me went down a notch. Great.

I have to tell you though; the movie had a couple of interesting points. (At this juncture I have to warn you if you have not seen and want to maintain any element of surprise, stop reading here.)

First of all, the Julia Stiles character is the last of her girlfriends in college to remain unattached and unengaged. She has big plans to go to med school and join doctors without borders. And no man no how is going to sway her goals. She even feels profoundly disappointed that her friends have abandoned their dreams to go and get hitched.

The last sentiment I don't necessarily agree with, but having such noble goals for herself, I forgive her.

So she falls in love with some guy who she later finds out is a prince. She at some point chases him home to Denmark, is proposed to, wins over the royal family and general public, gets ready to become queen.

Best part of the movie? When she realizes that as much as she wants to change to be with this man she loves, she is who she is and needs to follow her own path to medical school. Sad? Yes. Awesome in that she realizes that she cannot give up her identity and meld into another person in hopes to get used to it someday.

Did some sappy movie just say you gotta define the Cinderella story for yourself? Some marketed pulp romance?? My my my.

Thing is, the movie should have ended there. Stupid movie moguls said, "wait! The American public needs a happy ending! Let's tack on a two minute segment at the end."

If it is two minutes that could even be stretching it.

Julia graduates, is happy and ready to go to med school. But hold on, the prince/king is there! Basically tells her that he loves her and only her, and will wait to be with her. Wait through her med school, her career, whatever it takes. They embrace, movie over. Good guys win, the masses can go home happy.

Jerks. Sellouts. The romantics could have imagined the last part on their own.

I guess it comes down to how you define an ending as being happy, doesn't it?