What a Girl Wants

Entertainment Weekly Owen Gleiberman

In her sassy but scrubbed way, Bynes is a real charmer, and What a Girl Wants is a likable throwaway.

USA Today Claudia Puig

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.

The Onion (A.V. Club) Scott Tobias

It's a tame, hypocritical fantasy.

Film Threat Clint Morris

While this is far from an avant-garde, ingenious flick, it uses a dependable formula that’ll definitely deliver.

TV Guide Angel Cohn

Bynes is a charmer who adeptly straddles the line between romantic heroine and physical comedienne, while Firth is extremely enjoyable as a befuddled father.

The New York Times Dave Kehr

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.

LA Weekly Hazel-Dawn Dumpert

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.

Los Angeles Times Kevin Thomas

Works well enough. It has a decided plus in its appealing young star, Amanda Bynes, last seen opposite Frankie Muniz in "Big Fat Liar."

Seattle Post-Intelligencer William Arnold

It's mostly forced and predictable, too much of the physical comedy falls very flat.

Boston Globe Janice Page

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.

New York Post Lou Lumenick

Harmless, fish-out-of-water fluff.

Chicago Reader J.R. Jones

Pleasant bubblegum romp, which was inspired by the old Sandra Dee picture "The Reluctant Debutante."

Rolling Stone Peter Travers

It's slick girlie stuff, but the cast makes it go down easy.

Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert

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.

Variety Todd McCarthy

It feels much more like a shameless reshuffle of "The Princess Diaries."

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.

Miami Herald Connie Ogle

It's a cheery, impossible fantasy.

Austin Chronicle Kimberley Jones

Instantly forgettable but good-natured all the same.

Village Voice Anya Kamenetz

A culture-shock/daddy-meets-girl romantic comedy, WAGW is a sanitized adventure for the Mary Kate-and-Ashley set.

Dallas Observer Gregory Weinkauf

Very sketchily based upon "The Reluctant Debutante" (minus the charm, plot, and characterization).

Baltimore Sun Chris Kaltenbach

Movie lite, a clueless, formulaic paint-by-numbers comedy.

Chicago Tribune Robert K. Elder

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.

Washington Post Desson Thomson

It's uninspired and insipid all the way.

Christian Science Monitor David Sterritt

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.

New York Daily News Jami Bernard

Irritating wish-fulfillment movie.

San Francisco Chronicle Edward Guthmann

Dreadful teen comedy with a "Cinderella" theme.

Wall Street Journal Joe Morgenstern

Young audiences may welcome this movie, but girls, and boys, should want more.