Following up such a well-received debut as Director Gordon may know what some, if not all, girls want - a rich daddy, parties galore and a boyfriend who looks like a member of Blue - but the clumsiness with which this fantasy is played out makes The Princess Diaries look subtle.
In a remake of The Reluctant Debutante (1958), American teen Daphne (Amanda Bynes) is delighted to find her father is a British lord (Colin Firth). Her unannounced arrival, however, displeases daddy's poisonous fiancée (Anna Chancellor), as does her reluctance to behave like the ancient stereotypes populating this film ("I'm British: we only show affection to dogs and horses," spouts Eileen Atkins' Lady Dashwood).
Firth's comic abilities are given slightly more room to breathe, but with its clumsy plotting and sickly sentiment, this feels like a lazy attempt to cash in on an outdated American dream.