Reviewed by EWAN McDONALD
(Herald rating: * * )
Amanda Bynes stars in The Amanda Show on the Nickelodeon channel and is a favourite of the Mary-Kate and Ashley set, the preferred demographic for this exploration of that eternal question: can an underprivileged American girl find love and happiness as the daughter
of a rich English lord?
Daphne Reynolds (Bynes) has been raised by her mother, Libby (Kelly Preston), above a restaurant in Chinatown. Her absent father is Sir Henry Dashwood (Colin Firth), a British politician who quits the House of Lords to run for the Commons (students of British history may note that the screenplay was based on a novel by William Douglas Home, whose brother Sir Alec did the same thing in the 60s. I include this information because it's highly unlikely that students of British history will be watching this movie).
Daphne goes to London to meet her rich and handsome father, lovable and eccentric grandmother (Eileen Atkins), her father's fiancee (Anna Chancellor), her future stepsister (Christina Cole) and her father's evil adviser (Jonathan Pryce) and the Queen. As one does. And to help her father win an election, and find where her true destiny lies. As one dozes.
DVD features: movie (104min); commentaries by Amanda Bynes and by director Dennie Gordon, writers Jenny Bicks and Elizabeth Chandler; Fashion and Etiquette 101, What's A Girl To Wear? Features.
