A Royal Runaway Romance

8.3 stars.

Two wonderful leading actors whose chemistry is off the charts, this is a must see royal journey to find love.

The story begins on a frustrating note. A man named Wes from Chicago, and a princess, are supposedly in love. Wes is a successful painter and his current project is painting a portrait of the princess. After he's finished, he flies back to the states. Side note: It's a stretch that he is American, he is olive skinned with an eastern look and a strange accent...

Princess Amelia wants to visit him, however he becomes somewhat distant, he is a busy artist after all. She leaves nothing to chance, she is persistent, and will visit him as soon as the opportunity arises.

Two months later, Princess Amelia and her mother are visiting her uncle in Los Angeles and soon she meets Grady the head of her uncle's security detachment. The first impression is icy cold...after all he is a tall and handsome American who symbolizes power and sex appeal. Immediately, she is overwhelmingly attracted to him, but carefully masquerades as a disapproving dignitary to conceal her feelings.

She wants to fly to Chicago to see Wes, but she knows her mother will not permit it, so she persuades her uncle to allow her to sneak off via automobile. He allows it under one condition, that she be accompanied by his trusty security guard Grady.

We can guess how the story goes...

They visit many places, Princess Amelia experiences the mid-west, and she falls in love with the culture and with Grady. Oh, but she is supposed to be longing to see her painter Wes, and her feelings become confused...will her rendezvous with Wes be a game changer, or does she have stronger feelings for Grady?

We can guess how the story ends.

Amelia is soon to be crowned Queen and while she was having her portrait painted she became infatuated with a boy from Chicago, so she makes it her mission to go to the United States. So, she ends up in L. A and thanks to her uncle she ends up on a road trip with Grady, a bodyguard.

You know what to expect about this movie just from the title. I do think it's better than a lot of royal movies Hallmark has made. Speaking of royalty, I grew up watching "Chasing Liberty" and "First Daughter", so this was a must watch. It includes a road trip in a convertible and the typical American experience: a small town festival, camping & smores and an adorable inn with a wise couple.

I liked that we also got to know the vulnerable parts of the main lead not only regarding his feelings towards the leading lady, but also his personal issues and even an ex. They had good chemistry and as I mentioned before the "Royalness" isn't exagerated.

Anyway, it was okay.

Good storyline where the story unfolded in ways that the viewer would like. Te characters are interesting and the scenes in the movie were filmed in beautiful places.

The actors who played the character roles did a great job.

Hallmark is on a nice winning streak. I'm tired of plots involving royals, but this is one of the better ones. The opening shot of a beautiful foreign coastline is actually a scenic view of one of the Azores islands, nearly 1,000 miles off the coast of Portugal. For a moment, I thought the fictitious location was called Northeast Phillipa after I saw that on the screen, but then I figured out that Phillipa Northeast was actually the name of the actress who played Princess Amelia, and that the latest fake country name was Bundbury. I knew nothing about Phillipa (she's an Aussie actress with few film credits) but she was lovely to watch as she becomes aware of her feelings, interacts kindly with others, and experiences things she had never experienced before as a sheltered princess.

The family reunion with her uncle in America was a nice excuse to travel abroad, but the artist she liked seemed a little too blasé about having a sweet beautiful princess interested in him. Had that been me, I would have gone to L. A. as soon as I found out Amelia was there.

I like it when Hallmark movies show two people really getting to know each other before falling in love. People can learn a lot about each other during long road trips. That's a movie plot that dates back to "It Happened One Night" a classic (but far more antagonistic) rom-com. But it was also the plot in the recent Road Trip Romance, one of the worst Hallmark movies that I've ever seen (Ugh, so bad). I acknowledge that setting up such road trips, with people who've just met each other, usually requires some outlandish plot contrivances (as in RTR), but here the set up didn't seem all that outlandish. That's due to some surprisingly good writing by Jake Helgren, who wrote and directed another one of the worst Hallmark movies that I've ever seen (Save the Wedding).

One of the squares on a Hallmark bingo card is the inevitable "small town festival". So, of course, the Princess and Grady go to one (the "Spring Fling Festival"). Not only is it an opportunity for them to have a mini date, and to show how sweet Amelia is (with booth worker Becca), there's a nice scene where Grady (who "doesn't like to dance") and the Princess go to a barn dance.

The ensuing smoldering dance scene is accompanied by a perfect song for this movie ("You Can Sleep While I Drive" by Melissa Etheridge). Somebody really thought that through. While dancing, Grady describes his ex as having been "more focused on her career". Amelia asks: "What's wrong with that? " to which Grady responds: "Nothing as long as it's not her only focus." I appreciate how modern Hallmark movies are all about women (and men) trying to strike a balance in life, rather than promoting the old school idea that women should abandon their careers for the men in their lives (an outdated trope that is literally reversed in this movie).

And, once again, this modern Hallmark movie included a gay character who was presented in a "matter of fact" positive way without any drama or stereotypical behavior. He's simply a character (played engagingly by Vincent Gale) who just happens to be gay, just like a character may happen to be Black or Asian. I applaud Hallmark's more inclusive approach to making movies. It's very very healthy.

I'm looking forward to seeing Phillipa Northeast in another Hallmark movie soon. It's a cliche for an American to say this, but I LOVE her accent. And she's quite a good actress.

I've now seen this movie three times.

Introducing Princess Amelia of the made up kingdom of Bundbury. Amelia has her Royal portrait painted (and it is stunning!) and during the process falls in love with the Chicago portrait artist Wes. In order to visit Wes she contrives a Royal visit with her uncle the envoy to America, who lives in Beverly Hills. Assigned a security detail (Grady Beck) when she arrives, she initially tries to give him the slip. When caught trying to steal a vehicle to drive across country from LA to Chicago, Amelia confesses the true reason for her visit to her beloved gay uncle...who also came to America to pursue a man he loved! So, he sets Grady and Amelia up with a convertible to drive across country in, giving her a little taste of freedom before she has to assume the crown.

And along the way...well a romance blossoms with the very handsome and capable Grady. What will happen when they reach New York and her portrait artist? Well, you will just have to watch to find out!

"Sorry. It turns out I don't like being pulled away from my days off to play cross-country chauffeur."-Grady

What starts as an antagonistic relationship, softens into allies and then more.

"This is so strange, they serve breakfast here all day."-Amelia.

"He said when he travelled across America he didn't just learn about the country, but he learned about himself."-Amelia about her father

"Especially don't believe in love at first sight. It takes years to build true love and even then it might not be as true as you think. It's a two way street. Why isn't this guy meeting you halfway."-Grady.

"But it's a true American pastime isn't it? It will be just like in the movies only preferably with out the grizzly bears." -Amelia (in regards to Camping) "Yeah! Camping."

This was fun and funny. The princess was surprisingly naive. She was an American classic movie aficionado which she learned from her father. (That was fun for me as a classic movie fan myself.) She threw herself whole heartedly into learning and enjoying American customs. It was such a refreshing change from the usual American bashing.

Grady is very pragmatic, but fun loving. It was a match made in heaven. There is a beautiful song played at the barn dance that suited their trip, and they meet some lovely couples along the way to Chicago.

If you enjoy the Royal romance genre...this is Royal romance with a twist. Enjoy!