Thursday 6 December 2018

REVIEW | A Christmas Prince: The Royal Wedding (Spoiler Free)

I don't know what it is, but I really love Hallmarky style movies. Despite a lot of the cliche and stereotypes that appear in them, they're really entertaining.

Last year, one of the biggest Christmas hits was A Christmas Prince, a movie about a Journalist named Amber who is sent to the country of Aldovia to get the hot scoop on the roguish (for lack of a better word) Prince Richard. She is mistaken as the new Governess and instead of saying who she really is, she plays the roll to get the scop and in the meantime grows closer to the Royal Family and falls in love. There is a little more to this story but I don't want to give it away just in case anyone here hasn't seen it.

The movie was a huge success; to the point that Netflix even had to comment on 53 different people's viewing of it.

To be fair, I can understand why. It's really a lovely story and while it's not going to be everyone's taste, it's a nice change compared to a lot of the shows that were trending on Netflix last year.

Now I wasn't one of those fifty-three people. In fact, I didn't watch the original movie until about two months ago when I was sick and needed something other than the True Crime documentaries that I normally write. But I did watch it and found it really charming and light-hearted. I then found out that a sequel was coming and decided to add it to my December watch list.


If you don't want to watch the trailer (and you should because I live for the designer Sahil) the basic plot of the movie is that Amber has returned to Aldovia a year after her engagement to marry Prince Richard. She has brought her very salt of the Earth father with her and over the past year her blog has become very popular and she's been making the media rounds as a result.

Despite many trips back to Aldovia in the past year, this is the first time she's seeing the results of a new initiative her husband to be has put in place, and they're far from good. On top of all that, she has to deal with the extremely over the top Sahil and Mrs Averill, who despite being well-meaning and wanting the Royal Family to be viewed in a good light, push Amber's wishes concerning her wedding and her blog to the side in favour of protocol.

Ok, maybe well-meaning might be putting them into a too nice of light, but I don't see them as villains. They're honestly just doing their jobs. Should they actually listen to Amber - yes, especially as she is going to be Queen, but you need those kinds of antagonistic characters to give stories some zest.

Oh! And Simon has returned and he's a lot more likable this time around!

I honestly loved this movie. It was a lovely sequel to the original and it shows a lot of things in a realistic way; like the protocols a person needs to adjust to when entering a family like a royal family. Yes, they're very overbearing and aren't up to date, but there are a lot of them that are in place for a reason and it's just a matter of updating them to fit the times. Once Amber does actually start voicing her opinion a lot louder that is.

As much as I wanted Amber to find her voice a lot sooner in this movie, I think the time that she does works well as for the first time she is working as a unit with Prince Richard, something they really aren't doing throughout the movie. Once they are working together, they are an amazing force and it reinforces that marriage is a partnership and not a solo act.

Simon has a huge redemption arch in the movie as well. As much as I didn't want to, I found myself actually liking him by the end and I hope that we see more of him and Melissa if they do another movie. Also, Andy and Sahil had a lovely moment that I would like to see explored as well.

It was also nice to see Amber's Dad making friends with the Chef. It didn't feel as if he was looking for anything romantic, just that he wanted to be friends and I thought that was a beautiful touch.

Is it cliche? Yes.

Is it stereotypical in parts? Yes.

Is it something nice and fluffy for the holiday season? Yes.

Ultimately, if you're not a fan of Hallmark-style movies, you may not enjoy A Christmas Prince or A Christmas Prince: The Royal Wedding. If you are, however, then I think you'll enjoy it. It follows that typical plot line of underlying big thing being covered by smaller but just as important things, and in the end, everything gets tied up with a perfect Christmas bow.

What is more perfect at Christmas time than that?

Until next time,







(aka - Sophie)

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