The Reluctant Royal

I pretty much steer clear of Hallmark these days. Most of it is highly obnoxious. But for reasons unknown I gave this one a shot. And it wasn't bad. It wasn't great but it managed to be cute enough reminiscent of some of the cute but not so great old Hallmark fare.

Andrew Walker did well of a bit awkward at first playing a 38 year old man who kinda acted like a 22 year old kid. But he got better enough as it went along. The actress who played Prudence had to grow on me but when she did in liked her well enough.

The story was simplistic and predictable but that's not always a problem. The villains were cartoonish and unnecessary. A conflict not needed since the others could've been filled out.

I won't call it a must see but I wouldn't warn anyone off either. Take it or leave it. Hallmark has much worse to offer these days.

Something has changed with Hallmark as this, and a few (not all) recent releases have been much better than the previous slow and fairly boring products. I will admit that I often play some sort of game on my phone while watching these movies as they are not all that riviting. With this movie, there was no game playing as it catches your attention at the beginning and keeps it throughout. Fresh dialogue and fun to watch. Is it predictable, sure. Is it still fun, absolutely. Keep it up Hallmark and please present more movies like this one. Oh, and I love having new talent take prominent roles such as the very talented lead actress in this movie as Hallmark was overusing the same players. Well done.

Hallmark seems, with this movie, (and a few others recently) to have gotten back to what they did best before the whole Hallmark/Great American flap happened. The movie is fun, Andrew is is rare form and it was genuinely fun! Enjoy! The female lead is also very good. She seems to have jumped right into the Hallmark world and "nailed it". The scenery and even the old car What was it? A Triumph? (note the right hand drive!) add a level of believe ability that just adds to the quality of the movie. The only thing that irked me (just a bit) was the hair color application for Andrew...a little, I don't know... weird? Loved it! Keep it up Hallmark!

With all the terrible news in the real world, it's time to just give yourself a bit of time to enjoy a happy, make believe story. This movie does that. First off, Andrew Walker is Andrew Walker. He almost always gives an extraordinary performance in these movies and he does it again here. The supporting cast...especially the elder Duke ...all give wonderful performances. The only minus with this movie is there is so much to cover, you wish the movie was longer. You wish you could spend more time with each of the characters and learn more about them. There just was too much to cover. But that aside...you root for them...you learn about them...you enjoy their company. So, sit back...let your imagination go...enjoy Andrew Walker...enjoy the story...enjoy the townspeople...enjoy the staff...enjoy the journey. You will find it time well spent.

The promos sounded like a lower-scale, lower-budgeted rehash of the premise of KING RALPH with John Goodman, Peter O'Toole and John Hurt; I soon realized this wasn't quite the case or presented as that kind of LOL comedy, but I still got a lot more LOL moments than I expected. A large part of that is that I've been calling the Greater Philadelphia Metro Region home for the past 55 years and have many friends who are from South Philly or are first-generation children of transplants from South Philly to the South Jersey suburbs where I grew up. If there's going to be a culture clash between British aristocracy and an American-born heir, I can't think of a character that would bring sparks to that clash, more than Ralph the Las Vegas lounge singer, than a working stiff from South Philly. Small references to South Philly from protagonist Johnny in reply to his snooty cousin Allistair brought the biggest laughs such as the one after Allistair identifies himself as being of "Winshere, north of Devon". (I have to give kudos to Andrew Walker for NOT trying too hard to do a South Philly accent. Most actors not native to the PA-NJ-NY region end up not getting the subtle differences between the accents that are most concentrated, and end up overdoing it AND coming off with a Brooklyn or Bayonne NJ accent instead!)

The characters are engaging and most are likeable, and their actors have excellent chemistry. That between Andrew Walker (Johnny) and Emilie de Ravin (Prudence) is particularly involving. The characters are dynamic in the true old high school Language Arts class sense of changing due to the events of the story. Many of the "snooty" aristocratic characters end up not being as stereotypical as initially presented.

Just a little note here. Some of the reviewers mention the ridiculous notion that Johnny supposedly got his horseback riding skills to help another rider in distress by being the mechanical bull riding champion at his South Philly bar. Just thought I'd mention that the Pennsylvania Army National Guard has an Armored Cavalry squadron in Philadelphia that has a rather elaborate ceremonial horse team; if the writers had been aware of that fact, they could have made Johnny a former enlisted member (say a tank mechanic) of that unit and have gotten his riding skills with that horse team, a much more plausible/credible explanation. (I myself organized a much smaller, lower-budgeted and less elaborate horse team within my old New Jersey National Guard unit.)

I'll say this is one of the best Working Class American amid stuffy European Royalty movies Hallmark has ever done. One star off for the silly mechanical bull story. (And do I mean BULL!)