A Little Princess

Hey, wait a minute. A Little PRINCESS? This is a GIRLS movie! What am I doing reviewing a girls movie, you ask? Well, for starters, it's directed by the great Alphonso Cuaron. And for continuers, I have a five-year-old niece that I want to like me. And for finishers, my wife has been trying to get me to watch it for years.

So this perfect storm of circumstance has finally got me to watch A Little Princess, a movie I would never have otherwise thought to see. And you know what? It's a nice little movie.

A Little Princess is about a nice little girl, raised by her loving parents in India. She enjoys telling stories and is told that every little girl is a princess, no matter what their station in life. When her mother dies and her father goes off to fight in WWI, she is sent to a strict boarding house for little girls in New York City. There, she goes about telling her fantastical stories and spreading her princess philosophy to all the other nice little girls, and teaching little lessons to the not-so-nice ones. Then, tragedy strikes, and she is forced to learn the value of hardship and put her princesshood to a test.

Okay, that shouldn't very interesting to me, so I can't imagine that it is for you. But it is actually a very good film. Alfonso Cuaron knows how to make a good movie. Warner Bros. clearly thought they had something special on their hands that wasn't getting the exposure it deserved. The above poster is practically begging us to go see this movie. The cinematography is lovely and rich. There are some neat fantasy sequences showing us the stories the girl tells. They use mid-90's-era CGI, but they use it sparingly and it's very stylized, so the effects still hold up reasonably well.

Initially, I had hoped that my niece would let me interview her about the movie so I could put her thoughts into this review, but she got a sudden case of the shyness, so that put an end to that plan. I can say this, though: it held her attention all the way through, and that's quite a big thing. Also, while we were watching the movie, she would periodically turn to my wife and say, "I really like this movie". So there you have it, that's about as good a review as you can get.

In conclusion: If you are a five-to-ten-year-old girl, and you're reading this blog, you should probably check out Alfonso Cuaron's A Little Princess. If you are a 30-year-old man who likes things with samurai swords and puppets in them, you probably don't need to seek it out unless you

A: have a 5-to-10-year-old girl in your life; a daughter, a niece, an arranged bride, etc.

B: have a wife who loved the book as a kid and makes you watch it and you have no excuse after making her sit through MacGruber.

or

C: are a huuuuge fan of Alphonso Cuaron, and Children of Men and Y Tu Mama Tambien just aren't doing it for you anymore.

If any of those are you, this movie will not hurt you, but you are in danger... of being charmed. (???)