Ella Enchanted: Say yes to Hathaway! photo: Miramax Films Ella Enchanted Directed by Tommy O'Haver Miramax, opens April 9 The Prince & Me Directed by Martha Coolidge Paramount, in release more film most popular most commented Kabluey Tracking Shots by Jim Ridley Thoda Pyaar Thoda Magic by McCann, Ruth Diminished Capacity Tracking Shots by Nick Pinkerton Holding Trevor Tracking Shots by Julia Wallace We Are Together Tracking Shots by Ella Taylor Trash Talking With Harvey Weinstein by Tony Ortega Coming and Then Licking It Up. Is This a Gay Thing? Savage Love by Dan Savage At Home With Competitive Swallowers Crazy Legs and Eater X by Andy Kropa Gene Simmons and the Whores He Admires La Dolce Musto by Michael Musto Columbia's Knotty Noose Problem by Graham Rayman The 'W.' Stands for 'War Criminal' (17) Nat Hentoff Scientology's Crushing Defeat (14) Tony Ortega Runnin' Scared: From Brooklyn, a Rap Campaign Against Tight Clothes (9) Runnin' Scared: Arcynta Ali Childs Runnin' Scared: The City Pitted Kids Against Artists in the East Village (6) Runnin' Scared: Chloé A. Hilliard Savage Love: My Boyfriend Almost Fathered a Lesbian Couple's Baby?!? (5) Savage Love: Dan Savage

Ella aspires to the fabric-puncturing winkery of The Princess Bride (whose Cary Elwes appears here as Charmont's backstabbing uncle), and those who prefer their fantasy straight (ahem) should return to Middle Earth. A veritable Milky Way of guest stars—from a doggerel-delivering Eric Idle to Beckham's Parminder K. Nagra as Ella's best friend—prove distracting. The anachro-rock insertions may be no more excusable here than in A Knight's Tale, but Hathaway's karaoke stab at a Queen chestnut—tentative, then hair-looseningly brassy—has a goofball charm.

Hathaway shares her name with Shakespeare's wife, but if a biopic were ever cast, Julia Stiles might win the lead based on résumé. After her shrew-taming breakout 10 Things I Hate About You, the husky-voiced, lightly squashed-faced beauty played Ophelia in Hamlet and "Desi" in O. Now comes this adaptation of Sonnet CXLVIII. The Prince & Me's Paige Morgan (Stiles) is a farm-raised University of Wisconsin pre-med student; Eddie (Luke Mably) is actually Edvard, prince of Denmark, checking out the U.S. college scene after seeing a particularly inspiring ad for a Girls Gone Wild-style video in his Copenhagen chambers.

"Don't just go for the obvious," Eddie tells Paige, as he coaches the science-savvy but Bard-loathing coed through the wilds of line 12 ("The sun itself sees not till heaven clears"). Their opposites-attract trajectory entertainingly reaches an applause-inducing climax—but heeding Eddie's exegetical advice, Prince refuses to end on such an easy emotional note. The movie continues, very Ikiru-after-Watanabe-dies. Having shelved her dreams of being a doctor, Paige finds herself stranded in Denmark, her body immobilized by stiff garb, her milk-fed American spirit restricted by society's rules. (Mr. von Trier, here is your Dogville!) Paige eventually comes to a self-affirming decision, but the Danish interlude succeeds too well in making us feel her boredom.