Review: Lizzie McGuire Movie, The (2003)

Date: Tue, 20 May 2003 19:30:03 -0000
Newsgroups: rec.arts.movies.reviews
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The Lizzie McGuire Movie ** (out of 4)
Directed By: Jim Fall
Written By: Susan Estelle Jansen, Ed Decter & John J. Strauss
Music By: Cliff Eidelman
Lizzie McGuire/Isabella: Hilary Duff
Gordo: Adam Lamberg
Paolo: Yani Gellman
Miss Ungermeyer: Alex Borstein
Sergei: Brendan Kelly
Running Time: 1:33
Rated PG (for mild thematic elements)
Reviewed by: Michael J. Gold
Based on the hit TV show "Lizzie McGuire" from The Disney Channel,
"The Lizzie McGuire Movie" transports the cast not only to the big
screen, but to Italy as well. The one noticeably absent cast member is
Miranda Isabella Sanchez who plays Lizzie's best friend Lalaine. Fans
of the show will be pleased to see this 90-minute episode that is sure
to run on The Disney Channel soon after it leaves the theaters.
The film opens with Lizzie (Hilary Duff) preparing for her junior high
school graduation. When the class valedictorian is stuck ill, Lizzie
must fill in and deliver an address to the graduating class. After
publicly humiliating herself, Lizzie's only recourse is to flee the
country. Fortunately for her, her class is about to embark on a
two-week trip to Rome.
In Rome, Lizzie meets an Italian pop star named Paolo (Yani Gellman)
who tells her that she could the twin sister of his estranged singing
partner. This is very good news for Paolo since said singing partner,
Isabella, has refused to perform at an upcoming awards ceremony, which
places the duo in breach of contract. Before long and with the help of
her friend Gordo (Adam Lamberg), Lizzie is sneaking off from the tour
group to take Isabella's place at costume fittings and lip-synching
practice.
The film, like the TV show aims to teach a lesson and here the lesson
is primarily about self confidence. There are other topics the film
briefly touches upon like loyalty, friendship and standing up for
what's right, however, for the most part the movie is simply an
adolescent fairy tale. Since this is a Disney fairy tale instead of
one told by the brothers Grimm, one can assume that Paolo is
reasonably harmless and that no great tragedy will befall Lizzie as
she wanders throughout Rome unsupervised with a man she barely knows.
At 15, Hilary Duff is attractive and talented and certainly seems
poised to challenge Brittany Spears for domination of pop musical
scene. In addition to having an album of Christmas music out she also
sings several of the songs on both the TV show and movie soundtracks.
Earlier this year Duff appeared in the film "Agent Cody Banks" playing
the part of the teen love interest for Frankie Muniz's title
character. Hopefully, Duff will endeavor to grow and take on more
challenging acting roles and thereby secure herself the future in film
industry that so far has so far eluded the reigning pop superstar
Brittany Spears.
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X-RT-RatingText: 2/4