Mia Thermopolis is supposed to be taking over as queen of Genovia. Instead she finds herself in a race to get married before she loses the throne entirely. That is the setup for The Princess Diaries 2: Royal Engagement, a 2004 comedy-drama that wants to be a grown-up fairy tale but keeps getting stuck in the mechanics of its own plot.
Anne Hathaway returns as Mia, five years older and still trying to master the princess lessons that defined the first film. This time the stakes are higher: she learns that a male heir exists, Lord Nicholas Devereaux, the nephew of the scheming Viscount Mabrey. To inherit the throne, Mia must marry within the month, so she enters into an engagement with Andrew Jacoby, Duke of Kenilworth. The twist is that Mabrey orders Nicholas to seduce Mia so the engagement fails. Nicholas begins to seduce her, and the two start falling in love — something that is watched by both Mabrey and Mia’s grandmother, Queen Clarisse, played by Julie Andrews.
Trailer, via Disney UK.
The Setup That Doesn’t Land
The film tries to build tension around the royal marriage law, but the setup falls apart fast. Mia’s predicament is meant to be urgent, but the movie spends so much time on side plots about her friends and her grandmother’s romance that the central pressure leaks away. By the time Nicholas starts seducing Mia, the audience has forgotten why he needs to do it.
The film also adds new characters without giving them enough room to matter. Viscount Mabrey, played by John Rhys-Davies, is the schemer behind the plot, but his schemes feel thin next to the weight of the situation. Andrew Jacoby, played by Callum Blue, is the Duke of Kenilworth, and his role is reduced to a figurehead in the engagement plot. Chris Pine plays Nicholas Devereaux, and this is his feature film debut, but his arc — realizing Mia deserves the throne more than he does — is delivered with less conviction than the script demands.
Hathaway Carries the Weight
Hathaway is the reason anyone watches this movie twice. She plays Mia as nervous, earnest and slightly overwhelmed, and she commits fully to the physical comedy that defines these films. Her chemistry with Chris Pine is real, even when the script around them strains to keep up.
Julie Andrews gets the best scenes as Queen Clarisse, a character who has spent two films waiting to have a moment of her own. The film finally gives her one, though it arrives late and feels rushed. Heather Matarazzo returns as Mia’s friend Lilly, and she anchors the lighter moments without ever overshadowing Hathaway. Larry Miller’s Paolo, Raven-Symoné’s Asana and Kathleen Marshall’s Charlotte Kutaway round out a cast that mostly knows what it is doing.
Where the Film Goes Wrong
The biggest problem is the pacing. The film runs 113 minutes, and it crams too much into that time: Mia’s wedding preparations, Nicholas’s seduction plot, Mabrey’s machinations, Clarisse’s backstory and the final confrontation all arrive at once. The result is a movie that never settles into a single mode. It wants to be a romance, a comedy and a drama all at once, and none of those modes get the room they need.
There are also moments where the film leans on stereotypes that do not hold up. The royal family is presented as a collection of eccentric personalities, and some of those personalities land as jokes rather than character. The film is also dated in ways that are hard to ignore, especially for viewers who saw it in 2004 and are watching it again now.
The Ending That Doesn’t Close
The climax is meant to be satisfying. Mia learns that Nicholas was innocent and that Mabrey set up the scandal, and she walks out of the church rather than go through with a loveless marriage. Clarisse follows her and encourages her to follow her heart, which costs Clarisse the love of her own life, Joe, played by Héctor Elizondo. Mia returns to the church and asks Parliament to abolish the law on royal marriages, asking if they would force the significant women in their lives to marry without love.
It is a bold ending for a Disney sequel, and it earns some credit for attempting something beyond the usual happy ending. But the film spends so much time setting up that ending that the payoff feels hollow by comparison.
A Mixed Record
The film grossed $135.3 million worldwide, which is a respectable number for a sequel that was not tied to a book. That success did not translate into critical approval, though. Reviews at the time were mixed, and the film’s reputation has settled into a middling status rather than a strong one.
As of 2024, a sequel is in development with Adele Lim attached as director. That news gives fans hope, but it also raises questions about whether the franchise can escape the mechanics that weighed down this entry.
What Works and What Falls Short
- Anne Hathaway’s commitment to the physical comedy
- Julie Andrews’s performance as Queen Clarisse
- The chemistry between Hathaway and Pine
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The attempt to subvert the royal marriage law
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A plot that crams too much into 113 minutes
- A reliance on stereotypes that don’t land
- A climax that feels rushed after so much setup
- A failure to settle into a single genre
The Princess Diaries 2: Royal Engagement is a film with a good idea at its core. Mia Thermopolis should not have to marry to inherit the throne, and the movie tries to make that case. But the execution gets in the way of the message. The chemistry between Hathaway and Pine is real, and the cast delivers on their smaller moments. The larger machinery of the plot is where the film stumbles, and that stumble is big enough to sink the whole enterprise.
This is a film worth seeing for Hathaway’s performance alone, but it is a film that asks for more patience than it earns. It is a sequel that repeats the mistakes of its predecessor rather than building on them, and it leaves audiences wanting a better version of itself.
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