Going in to a sneak preview of this film, I kept thinking of Mel Gibson and the somewhat risqué What Women Want. Coming out, I kept thinking of the puerile (or, more correctly, “puellile”, if such a word exists) The Princess Diaries. On the latter point, our local newspaper reviewer seemed to agree with me, mentioning the same film.

Some eighteen years ago, aristocratic English lad Henry Dashwood ⁽¹⁾ (Colin Firth) met Libby Reynolds (Kelly Preston) in Morocco, where they were married in a ceremony that may or may not have been legal. The result of this, when they returned to Merrie Olde England, was a pregnancy and a breakup, the former engineered by the two of them, the latter by Dashwood family advisor Alistair Payne (excellent Welsh character actor Jonathan ap Rhys … excuse me, Pryce). Libby returned to America, where she gave birth to Daphne (Amanda Byrnes), who some seventeen years later got it into her head to go back to England, hunt up her dad, and upset his campaign for the House of Commons, ⁽²⁾ his engagement to Glynnis, the daughter of advisor Payne, and generally turn English society on its head in ways more contrived than likely.

Some nice shots of the Henley Regatta. Otherwise, yawn.

⁽²⁾ As a member of a noble family, Henry had a safe seat in the House of Lords, but he gave it up to run for the Commons. One of David Weber’s characters (actually invented by Eric Flint, I believe) in War of Honor did the same; such an action seemed more likely in science-fiction than it did in a movie supposedly taking place in the real world.