By Megan Ruge Asst. living and arts editor
In light of the holiday season being under way, many of us will be heading home soon. We will leave campus for few days and return to our roots, eat dinner with our family and talk about what changes we have made since we returned to school.
We all remember those shows that we watched and the movies that we enjoyed as adolescents. With the newness of our adult lives, it is often comforting to revisit childhood memories, especially during the holidays.
This week’s film of choice comes to you from the childhood archives. In light of the fact that many Susquehanna students will be returning or leaving for GO trips soon, our film tells the story of a European excursion.
This week’s film is “The Lizzie McGuire Movie.” This film’s story is one of young Lizzie McGuire, an awkward preteen headed into high school for the first time. We all remember Lizzie from her television series about living through middle school day by day, trying to get through preteen challenges.
Now, Lizzie is all grown up and headed to high school, but before she can walk those hallowed halls, she must get acquainted with her class. When entering high school, it is usual to have a sort of ice-breaking orientation. For Lizzie’s high school, this orientation occurs in Italy.
When Lizzie’s summer before high school draws to an end, she prepares to board a plane with one of her best friends, Gordo. Bound for Italy with a group of her classmates led by her principle, Lizzie embarks on a new type of journey.
While in Italy, Lizzie experiences a case of mistaken identity when many of the people around her in the foreign country think she might be a missing pop star by the name of Isabella. She meets a boy named Paolo, an Italian international singing sensation, and he is quickly taken with her due to her resemblance to his old signing partner.
There are so many things that this movie did right. It answered so many questions that were left unanswered by the television series, like what would happen between Lizzie and Gordo, or what Max would do if Lizzie wasn’t around for him to torment. The film also did a lot of things very wrong.
For starters, the acting; casting was not done well at all. The actors that had been chosen were meant to fit a specific physical profile for Italian singer, Paolo, and for many of the other Italians. The actors were not very believable, and the more Lizzie helped these characters open up, the more fake they felt to the viewer.
From the beginning, it should not have been clear what Paolo’s intentions were; this was to remain a mystery. Poor acting on the part of Paolo’s actor leaves the viewer with an uneasy feeling.
Also, many interactions between Hilary Duff, who plays Lizzie, and many other actors seem forced, almost as if the counterpart is trying too hard to convey a tense atmosphere to the viewer. Sure, I can accredit this to the fact that this film is a Disney Channel Original Movie that was spun from a show about a spunky preteen, but nonetheless there could have been more effort where casting was concerned.
Another big issue with the film was the use of location. The film had the opportunity to use the shooting locations in Italy to their advantage, and they didn’t take it. There are very few places in the film that are recognizable. They show you a montage of famous Italian structures, but the use of location in the film is not used to its full potential.
The film is under-made and under-cast, but the film’s storyline wraps up the television series storyline well. It is a perfectly formulated ending to the show and a great movie to revisit the past. I give this movie 3 out of 5 stars.
