FOR engaging family Christmas fare that doesn't involve wizardy and won't leave your bottom numb after three hours in front of the screen, look no further than The Princess Diaries (PG).

Director Garry Marshall is used to telling rags to riches fairytales, as in Pretty Woman, but this time he excels himself in a fresh and funny take on the Pygmalion story.

The reason he succeeds so well is in the casting.

Newcomer Anne Hathaway is quite superb as Mia, a gawky teenager whose clumsy manner and inability to say or do the right thing makes her as popular as a Greek restaurant as a venue for a planespotters' Christmas party, and Julie Andrews as the grandmother who transforms her life.

Hathaway begins the film as the archetypal outsider, a misfit who has only fellow outcast Heather Matarazzo for company.

She is about as far away from being in with the in crowd as it is possible to be, but this suits her because her friendship with Matarazzo is so strong.

She lives with her mother in San Francisco and appears to have a steady life ahead, until the grandmother she didn't know existed arrives.

It is of course Andrews, which would be a shock for anyone but the news she brings is even more amazing.

Andrews is the queen of a tiny European country called Gevonia, but only by marriage.

Unless she can come up with some pure royal blood to take over the throne her kingdom is likely to be taken over by a more powerful neighbour. You'd think the place would have enough to worry about, what with the Euro coming and all that, but the people want a new queen and Hathaway is the only candidate.

Being a queen requires a certain amount of decorum, breeding and charm but Hathaway has more experience of McDonald's than majesty so she has to be trained in the ways of being a proper royal personage.

This leads to some obvious slapstick as Hathaway causes chaos at a banquet and generally continues to do and say the wrong thing. But this is an ugly duckling tale and gradually she grows into her new-found role.

There is a nice sub-plot about the strain all of this puts on her friendship with Matarazzo and an inevitable romantic interest with a shy musical type but the main thrust of the story of her growing bond with Andrews.

Most of the comedy comes not from Hathaway's pratfalls but from Andrews' reactions to them. She is at her best as the frosty matriarch forced to concede she no longer has complete control.

Hathaway is excellent as she develops from brattish geek to stately princess and makes the most of some above average dialogue.

This is pure wish fulfilment but it is entertainingly done.

Gary Lawrence