| 67 |
Entertainment Weekly
In her sassy but scrubbed way, Bynes is a real charmer, and What a Girl Wants is a likable throwaway.
|
| 63 |
USA Today
There's nothing wrong with fairy tales, but they don't have to be formulaic. A movie like this would have benefited from a blending of the fanciful and the inventive.
|
| 60 |
The Onion (A.V. Club)
It's a tame, hypocritical fantasy.
|
| 60 |
Film Threat
Clint Morris
While this is far from an avant-garde, ingenious flick, it uses a dependable formula that’ll definitely deliver.
|
| 60 |
TV Guide
Bynes is a charmer who adeptly straddles the line between romantic heroine and physical comedienne, while Firth is extremely enjoyable as a befuddled father.
|
| 60 |
The New York Times
Minnelli's comedy had its serious underpinnings: by the end of the film, a girl had become a woman. By the end of Ms. Gordon's film, the girl is still a girl, but a girl with much cooler stuff, including a stately home, a butler and a cute British boyfriend.
|
| 60 |
LA Weekly
Strictly for budding young ladies, though it does offer those who've already bloomed the grown-up pleasures of Firth, a great actor who graciously invites you to join him in the slow-burn romantic corner into which he's rapidly painting himself.
|
| 60 |
Los Angeles Times
Works well enough. It has a decided plus in its appealing young star, Amanda Bynes, last seen opposite Frankie Muniz in "Big Fat Liar."
|
| 58 |
Seattle Post-Intelligencer
It's mostly forced and predictable, too much of the physical comedy falls very flat.
|
| 50 |
Boston Globe
It's not that What a Girl Wants is dreadful; it's merely slapdash, wildly inconsistent in
tone and style, and mind-numbingly predictable in character and plot.
|
| 50 |
New York Post
Harmless, fish-out-of-water fluff.
|
| 50 |
Chicago Reader
Pleasant bubblegum romp, which was inspired by the old Sandra Dee picture "The Reluctant Debutante."
|
| 50 |
Rolling Stone
It's slick girlie stuff, but the cast makes it go down easy.
|
| 50 |
Chicago Sun-Times
The movie is clearly intended for girls between the ages of 9 and 15, and for the more civilized of their brothers, and isn't of much use to anyone else.
|
| 50 |
Variety
It feels much more like a shameless reshuffle of "The Princess Diaries."
|
| 50 |
Philadelphia Inquirer
Karen Heller
Designed as the ideal confection to attract a young girl or teen, What a Girl Wants will more likely hook their mothers.
|
| 50 |
Miami Herald
It's a cheery, impossible fantasy.
|
| 40 |
Austin Chronicle
Instantly forgettable but good-natured all the same.
|
| 40 |
Village Voice
Anya Kamenetz
A culture-shock/daddy-meets-girl romantic comedy, WAGW is a sanitized adventure for the Mary Kate-and-Ashley set.
|
| 40 |
Dallas Observer
Very sketchily based upon "The Reluctant Debutante" (minus the charm, plot, and characterization).
|
| 38 |
Baltimore Sun
Movie lite, a clueless, formulaic paint-by-numbers comedy.
|
| 38 |
Chicago Tribune
Were it not for young star Amanda Bynes' energetic good nature in the face of drab dialogue and wooden stereotypes, What a Girl Wants might have been a career-ending movie violation rather than just an embarrassing fender-bender.
|
| 30 |
Washington Post
It's uninspired and insipid all the way.
|
| 25 |
Christian Science Monitor
If the Warner Bros. wizards have it right, what a girl wants is to see as much of Amanda Bynes as she possibly can...It's not so great for the rest of us, since the film has nothing else to offer.
|
| 25 |
New York Daily News
Irritating wish-fulfillment movie.
|
| 25 |
San Francisco Chronicle
Dreadful teen comedy with a "Cinderella" theme.
|
| 20 |
Wall Street Journal
Young audiences may welcome this movie, but girls, and boys, should want more.
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