New This Week
Critics & Publications
Archives: A-Z Index
Advanced Search

Upcoming Release Calendar
Awards & Bests By Year
All-Time High Scores
All-Time Low Scores
How Metascores Are Calculated
Discuss Film In Our Forums

sort by name

sort by score

97 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days
xx Beer for My Horses
75 Boy A
xx Christmas on Mars: A Fantastical Film Freakout Featuring the Flaming Lips
48 Death Defying Acts
85 Edge of Heaven, The
33 Elite Squad
80 Encounters at the End of the World
20 Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed
86 Flight of the Red Balloon, The
54 Get Smart
73 Gonzo: The Life and Work of Dr. Hunter S. Thompson
34 Happening, The
25 Hell Ride
78 Hellboy II: The Golden Army
44 Henry Poole is Here
61 Incredible Hulk, The
65 Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull
46 Jack Brooks: Monster Slayer
57 Journey to the Center of the Earth 3D
xx Kiss the Bride
63 Kit Kittredge: An American Girl
73 Kung Fu Panda
52 Milarepa
62 Mister Foe
53 Mister Lonely
74 Mongol
61 On the Rumba River
83 Paranoid Park
32 Perfect Holiday, The
49 Pirates Who Don't Do Anything: A VeggieTales Movie, The
63 Planet B-Boy
72 Priceless
63 Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants 2, The
70 Standard Operating Procedure
35 Star Wars: The Clone Wars
57 Stone Angel, The
47 Strangers, The
61 Stuck
55 Sukiyaki Western Django
63 This Christmas
71 To the Limit
72 Transsiberian
71 Tropic Thunder
79 Visitor, The
93 WALL-E
37 War, Inc.
xx Whaledreamers
54 What We Do Is Secret
66 When Did You Last See Your Father?
54 You Don't Mess with the Zohan
39 Young People F**king
45 Zombie Strippers

Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed movies.

What a Girl Wants
Warner Bros.


7.5

based on 27 reviews
Read critic reviews
How did we calculate this?

based on 24 votes
Read user comments
Rate this movie

FILM:

MPAA RATING: PG for mild language

Starring Amanda Bynes, Colin Firth, Kelly Preston, Anna Chancellor, Tom Harper, Jonathan Pryce, and Eileen Atkins

Determined to live out her fantasy of forging a storybook relationship with her long-absent dad, a spirited young American girl (Bynes) impulsively hops a flight to London, where she quickly discovers that her father (Firth) is a high profile politician. (Warner Bros.)

GENRE(S):	Romance
WRITTEN BY:	Jenny Bicks Elizabeth Chandler William Douglas Home (play The Reluctant Debutante and 1958 screenplay)
DIRECTED BY:	Dennie Gordon
RELEASE DATE:	DVD: August 5, 2003 Video: August 5, 2003 Theatrical: April 4, 2003
RUNNING TIME:	100 minutes, Color
ORIGIN:	USA

All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...

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.

The average user rating for this movie is 7.5 (out of 10) based on 24 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

Janice P. gave it a10:
I would recommend this movie to everyone to watch. there were happy and sad moments and it reaches out to the young and the old. The cast is incredible especially Amanda Bynes and Colin Firth.

clay gave it a3:
Lame. total copy off Cinderella, and not even in a clever way. good film if you love stereotypes though.

Katherine gave it a9:
I thought it ws good. Not great.

Christine gave it a10:
I think it's a great movie...well.it's true that it's a girl movie.but it's cool....colin firth is the best.

Sarah W. gave it a10:
I loved the movie!!!!

Georgia gave it a2:
Stereotyped the British. Unrealistic, Byrnes was plain annoying; especially the accent.

Amanda S. gave it a9:
Nice movie great for girls, very funny, yup, its a great movie to watch, a movie for boys too, i know a boy who saw it at my house, though he didnt understand a thing!!!

What a Girl Wants Warner Bros.

What a Girl Wants
Warner Bros.