The Reluctant Royal

7.7 stars.

I anticipated this Hallmark would be a bit better than it turned out however, it still did not disappoint. I feel that the story is a bit slow at times, somehow the characters weren't as lively as expected, the the mood wasn't as exuberant as some other royal romances. That feeling of expectation, leading up to the final romantic encounter, it was somewhat absent. The leads don't have quite the chemistry that is generally considered the bread and butter of an exceptional romance. On the other hand, I actually laughed a few times-a very rare reaction to Hallmark romances.

However, the overall experience was fine. I would say this film falls a bit short of greatness in several different categories. It's one of those slightly above average Hallmark movies, perhaps a 7.1, but since I really like all the actors and their personalities grow on you after a while, it's elevated to a 7.7. Anything 7.5 through 7.7 I feel like watching again in 2-5 years, depending on my mood at the time. Generally, I rate based on my initial impression, "do I want to see this again in the next couple years, five years, or maybe revisit this one in ten years to never?" If the answer is five years, then my rating is generally 7.5 - 7.6. I think I might be in the mood for 'The Reluctant Royal' in 3 years-just a hunch. It's a strict system, because those unfortunate 7.4's I will probably never deign to watch again, but I must be true to the system or I'll be wasting precious time rewatching average films-time that should be allocated to new releases and favorites.

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.

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!)

I did not like the tone of this story. The commoner coming in and saving the day might have been a nice story. And he does keep triumphing in almost everything he does including showing up an experienced horseman even though his only riding experience seems to only be riding a mechanical bull. That was a little too much.

The son of a Duke is automatically a Lord and I think has the title Marquess. Yet the cousin constantly insults him. Would he get away with that in front of a group?

The story goes about how you'd expect. The cousin who is the alternate heir becomes the villain. Two relationships develop. The potential romance is rushed because of everything else going on. The story makes a point of a potential problem there and also rushes dealing with it.

The acting is OK, but not great. The dialogue is mostly bland with maybe one or two good lines.

Like the movie, The Royal We, from the previous week on Hallmark, there is an epilogue where the three royal movies of March 2025 are tied together. It was clever in that one, but seemed forced and abrupt in this one.