‘Debutante,’
‘Girl’ show similar story, character
By Christine G. Adamo
On-line Forty-Niner
Controversial
love interests, rags-to-riches turns of
events and parents behaving badly: the April
4 Warner Bros. release “What a Girl Wants”
and its 1958 predecessor “The Reluctant
Debutante” share those attributes.
How they are played out, however, reveals
more than just a little something about
the times; they really are a changin’.
In a bit of role reversal, Amanda Bynes
takes the lead in “What a Girl Wants.”
She is a love child who eventually earns
the affection of her politically-active
father (Colin Firth of “Bridget Jones’ Diary”)
and a posh inheritance when she heads to
London to track him down after years of
longing and yearning that her single mom
(Kelly Preston) could not quell.
In contrast, Sandra Dee plays a legitimate
heir to the fortune and affection of her
London-based, banker father (Rex Harrison
of “My Fair Lady” fame), the product of
his failed marriage to a woman his new wife
refers to as the American woman she nearly
“forgot” existed.
Either way, American candor and unabashed
desires for true, not contrived, love prevail.
Bynes and Dee are escorted around London’s
“coming out” scene, expected to find their
place in proper society among the debutantes,
dames and dashing drips therein an invitation
for love.
What upstanding, American girl would fall
for that? Both, to their parents’ alarm
and dismay, fall head-over-hills in love
with members of the bands hired to perform
at the functions.
Bynes understandably falls for a guitar-strumming,
dark-skinned prep-school dropout named Ian
(Oliver James) who’s looking for more meaning
in his relationships. Dee’s blown away by
the dark-haired, dreamy drummer David (John
Saxon) her father accidentally introduces
her to - mistaking him for one of the guests.
Both films, Bynes’ rated PG and Dee’s unrated
(I would assign it the equivalent of a PG-13
rating for its bent toward a more adult
audience), take a humorous look at the secret
life of the American girl. Sprinkled in
are snippets of the stubborn and at times
surprising behavior of parents and relatives
who presume to know more about their child’s
best interests than she does.
But the comparisons can stop there. These
are two different movies written for two
different times. Bynes is much more serious
about her search for love, acceptance and
a deeper sense of self. Dee is a pretty
party girl whose only mission is to spend
her summers as she always has - in London
with a father she’s always known and been
able to rely on.
The supporting cast in both films does an
excellent job of getting in the girls’ way
and making the audience love to hate them.
The most fantastic wretched performances
come from Anna Chancellor as Glynnis Payne
in “What a Girl Wants” and Angela Landsbury
in “The Reluctant Debutante.”
“What a Girl Wants” is currently in theaters.
“The Reluctant Debutante” can be found in
select Blockbuster and other video stores.
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