MovieFreak.com - What a Girl Wants DVD Review

Daphne (Amanda Bynes), a spirited young American girl, travels to London in search of her long-lost father (Colin Firth), an influential aristocratic politician. As Daphne attempts to prove that love can conquer all, her impulsive behavior creates an uproar in high society, where her unique style threatens to undermine the relationship she has waited her whole life to experience.

What a Girl Wants, directed by Dennie Gordon (Joe Dirt), is a Cinderella story updated to modern times. A girl goes on a search for her father she never knew and finds him within a matter of ten minutes. She meets a boy and he becomes her boyfriend. She’s invited to live with her father, a high class aristocrat, changes his attitude, which costs him the likeness of the public, forcing him to tame and change her behavior, something she later figures out is not worth it. Basically, this is the film in a nutshell. Essentially, What a Girl Wants is uncomplicated and enjoyable, but it stretches the believability of the situation a bit too far.

Adapting the play “The Reluctant Debutante,” by William Douglas Home, screenwriters Jenny Bicks and Elizabeth Chandler construct a story that is straight forward and uncomplicated in its executions. However, too many coincidences and too much good will ends up feeling too good to be true, also lowering any chances of a good surprise or a spin to the story. Bicks and Chandler import some vital life values, such as “be yourself” and “don’t change for anyone,” but the circumstances are a little too coincidental and at times sentimental. Essentially, the script lacks ingenuity, despite having some good dialogue exchanges between the main character and her father. The script also runs short of well-rounded characters as they are either evil or very nice; it reinforces cardboard characterization.

On the other hand, What a Girl Wants remains enjoyable to watch. Following Daphne on her journey to discover herself and get to know her father is sweet and engaging. The engaging part of the film works as well as it does because of Amanda Bynes, who carries the role with certain innocence, and a sense of courage and strength. Her performance sells the role, and most of the Cinderella-like story. Colin Firth and Kelly Preston, both of whom share some genuine chemistry, are believable as father and mother to Daphne, respectively. Co-star Jonathan Price sleepwalks through his role as the evil guy, but Oliver James makes an interesting and likeable entrance in his first starring role as Ian, Daphne’s boyfriend.

Overall, What a Girl Wants is a little too convenient and straight-forward, although the likeness and charm of Amanda Bynes makes this film watchable. Boasting a pretty decent soundtrack, including quite many popular pop songs, What a Girl Wants is harmless enjoyment even if many things don’t add up to a perfect whole.

Warner Bros. presents What A Girl Wants in 2.35:1 anamorphic widescreen. There are no noticeable lines or scratches on the print, neither compression artifacts or pixelation occurs. The film’s color palette is nice and bright, and interior scenes look beautiful due to very fine lighting. The colors are only sometimes vibrant, most of the time they bounce off of the sunlight (who’d think London is so bright and sunny). Color detail looks pretty good, too. Dark scenes are almost non-existent, except for the final scene, and the quality here is perfectly fine; no grain to speak of. As a result, dark tones and black levels are hardly an issue, though they appear to look accurate. The overall video presentation looks pretty good and bright as can be.

Warner Bros. presents What A Girl Wants in English 5.1 Dolby Digital Surround Sound. Except for the music soundtrack, which is clear, loud, and penetrating the soundfield, including quite a few popular songs cut to montages, the front speakers carry most the audio. Dialog is clear and easy to understand, but in general the soundtrack is limited in surround quality. Sound effects come across as subtle as there are not many anyway. Surely this film is not specifically designed for surround usage, though overall audio quality is accurate and clear. The soundtrack maintains a fine balance and occasionally rises above average quality.

2 Commentaries – The first one is by Director Dennie Gordon and the two screenwriters, Jenny Bicks and Elizabeth Chandler. The three women give off some good talk, and reflect on the story and production of the film. Their information is a lot more concrete than the second one by star Amanda Bynes, though it tops the first one in terms of fun. Bynes talks away (mostly happy talk), pointing out just about anything that shows up on screen, such as the comment, “How cool-looking is that statue?” She also points out the vast amount of looping that was necessary during post-production, and professes the congeniality of co-star Colin Firth. Overall, Bynes’ track is energetic, fun, and generally informative (it helps if you enjoyed the film).

Deleted Scenes – There are three additional scenes here that combine for a minute and forty seconds of footage, including a campaign speech by Colin Firth’s character. These are tiny scenes and don’t add a lot to the film. Therefore, it is not surprising the DVD does not advertise these scenes on the back cover.

Fashion and Etiquette 101 (~8 mins) – First up is a little insight into the costumes hosted by the film’s costume designer. The etiquette part concerns table manners and formality, hosted by a teacher familiar with the subject and demonstrated by some extras. On the whole this featurette is thin, though it pertains to the film. No doubt, a making-of featurette would have been better, with interviews and all that good stuff. But alas, this is what’s there.

Rounding out the extras is an interactive feature called “What’s a Girl to Wear,” a mix-and-match interactive challenge; that is, select from a variety of Amanda Bynes’ clothing from the film in the correct order and a short behind-the-scenes clip will be shown. Also included is the film’s Theatrical Trailer and cast & crew information.

You can select to view the film with optional English, French, and Spanish subtitles. The DVD’s menus are not animated. The 105-minute feature is organized into twenty-eight chapters.

What a Girl Wants is essentially a convenient Cinderella story, including coincidences that stretch believability, although the charm of Amanda Bynes pushes the film to harmless, enjoyable entertainment; though be advised the film plays more to the younger crowd. Warner Bros. offers very decent video/audio quality, and offers some decent extras. What a Girl Wants makes a good rental recommendation!

THE MOVIE	6
THE VIDEO	8
THE AUDIO	7
THE EXTRAS	5
OVERALL (not an average)	6