Un cadeau royal pour Noël

A Royal Corgi Christmas? Give me a break.

But I know sometimes Hallmark gives stupid names to some pretty good movies.

Then I saw it was directed by Clare Niederpruem, who directed Holiday for Heroes, Christmas Bow and One December Night, good movies all.

I am really sick of the whole royalty thing, but they keep making them so they must appeal to someone.

This was a little different.

The American commoner is a dog trainer hired by the monarchy to tame a Corgi which has been gifted to the queen by her son. She is clumsily respectful at first, but in time she comes to interact with them as people and eventually comes to playfully mock them and their royal trappings.

Hunter King as Cecily is so good. She is not the typical Hallmark beauty, but her personality is what makes her special. This is not to say she's unattractive.

She and Jordan Renzo as the prince have excellent chemistry.

Julie Lamberton as the princess is also excellent. I would not be surprised to see her in leading roles in the near future.

The only reason I would grade down a little is the traditional Hallmark misunderstanding at the 100 minute mark is a little clumsy, and the reconciliation left me scratching my head a little.

Otherwise, well worth watching.

I am not Hunter kings biggest fan, but I actually think she did well in this film and I loved her in her Royal hiking outfit with the cap. Prince Edmund is played well by Jordan Renzo, but the dogs are the real stars of this film starting with Mistletoe, of course!

Prince Edmund's staff hire dog trainer and author of Dog-ma, Cecily (played by Hunter King). She comes with bit of an agenda, to get the Royal family to sponsor her charity, which predictably leads to bad feelings on the Prince's part as he sees her as a grifter.

I really appreciated that the Princess and the Queen were played by good people...in fact there is only one misguided member of the Royal household. It. Was fun to have Cecily's friend and business partner, Jacob, be a Royal watcher (as I do know they exist).

Overall I enjoyed it...but mainly because of the dogs, so I recommend it to dog lovers especially those fond of Corgi's (whichbyiu can guess by the title).

I was all for watching a movie about a rambunctious royal corgi, but when I first saw who would be the male lead, I quickly got discouraged. Jordan Renzo just didn't fit the image of a royal prince. Hallmark has had it's fair share of actors portraying future kings and they have until now fit the role perfectly. Unfortunately, Jordan Renzo falls below the benchmark. Don't get me wrong, I'm sure he's a good actor but for me, this was just the wrong role for him.

So despite the cuteness of the corgi and Hunter King's bubbly presence as Cecily Bowman, the dog trainer, I just couldn't find a good reason to finish watching this movie.

There have been nannies, and world-class skaters, and matchmakers, and so many other excuses to spend time with a king or a prince. Another royal angle usually sees the prince or princess in the US where he or she is thrown together with the commoner in their world. This time it's a dog trainer at the castle. The prince has the reputation of a playboy but that persona is never seen in this movie.

There are gags centering around the dog's antics. There is some castle politics, but this queen and mother is surprisingly welcoming and so not the source of the problem.

The leads have mild chemistry. The acting is OK. The dialogue is OK. But there are no great highs or lows or surprises.

I'll give any movie a try if it has corgis in it, and this one had wall-to-wall corgis being cute and doing cute things. As for the storyline, well its about a misbehaving royal corgi that photo bombs a royal event. The corgi becomes a national sensation which leads to all kinds of good things for the community and the royal family's reputation. Meanwhile, the female lead falls in love with the dog trainer who is also the male lead. There is not much else to this movie other than fundraising/social events that give the corgis excuses to be in the movie. Its formula Hallmark and there is barely enough storyline in it to keep your interest. I came for the movie, but only stayed to the end for the corgis.