24. What A Girl Wants (2003) - Dennie Gordon

What a Girl Wants Trailer

It's hard to believe that Colin Firth is an Academy Award winning actor after seeing this movie now, as an 18 year old film student, compared to when I first saw it as an, awkward, overweight preteen (go middle school!). And I would say that everybody has to start somewhere, but this film came out the same year as "Girl with a Pearl Earring" and years after "Bridget Jones' Diary" and "Pride and Prejudice." Come on, Colin, a movie with Amanda Bynes? I mean I do appreciate her "goofyness" and will 'not be afraid to admit that I religiously watched "the Amanda Show." And don't get me wrong, I would be perfectly happy with Colin Firth as a member of British Parliament, and would move to London if he actually were in it. But what made me addicted to this movie as a preteen was obviously the charming British, musically talented, spikey haired "tour guide" that Amanda Bynes meets when she arrives in London. I basically watch this movie as a guilty pleasure and as a way of remembering my childhood, when life was simple. When going to a friends house meant sitting around watching movies with the stereotypical girl next door and adorable hunk that she ends up with in the end...before Amanda Bynes retired...did you know she retired?!