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THE LIZZIE McGUIRE MOVIE

The adorable klutz of Disney’s popular TV series takes her bumbling adolescent angst to the big screen. The plot is rudimentary: after an awful embarrassment — a disastrous junior-high graduation that gets internationally telecast, thanks to her little brother — Lizzie heads off on a class trip to Rome, where she’s mistaken for a pop diva and perpetuates the charade to stay in the good graces of a hunky Italian crooner (Yani Gellman). It’s the ultimate schoolgirl fantasy, but Lizzie’s ball-busting chaperone (Alex Borstein) looms at every turn and threatens to burst the bubble. This could be Hilary Duff’s swan song as a tweener princess: the wholesome nymphette already has a Top 10 MTV video, and here she hits the Colosseum in a swanky outfit and performs a vacuous pop number. Her wide-eyed effervescence and gleaming smile have appeal, but the stammering wears thin. Director Jim Fall offsets the bubblegum perkiness by interspersing æsthetically framed portraits of Rome’s timeless architecture. (90 minutes)

BY TOM MEEK

Issue Date: May 9 - 15, 2003
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