Un principe inaspettato

ION Television has made some good Christmas movies over the years, for example, Best Christmas Ball Ever (a very good Christmas movie), A Christmas Kiss, A Christmas Kiss II, and The Spruces & the Pines. Unfortunately, this movie is not one of them. The writer here draws on a very popular plot device: deception and mistaken identity. This year alone, we have seen make-believe relationships (in, e.g., Holidate, Midnight at the Magnolia, and Happiest Season), princess switches (in The Princess Switch: Switched Again), fake five-star bed and breakfast staff (in Five Star Christmas), and fake company executives (in If I Only Had Christmas). This movie uses the classic 'incognito royals': the royal (usually a prince) pretends to be a 'commoner' and ends up falling in love with one of them, they find out, they break-up, they make-up and live happily ever after. The story in this one is your classic version of this. It is quite ordinary and predictable. The lines and dialogue too are quite dull, and at times, aren't great. The scenes where the Prince (aka Prince Edward) explains why he wants to go to the US (to find himself/ to be himself) and the scene at the end (where the commoner, aka Lauren, confronts the Princes with his deception) are examples of very ordinary, run of the mill dialogue. The acting is not that much better, I'm afraid. Paige Bach (playing Lauren) had a decent performance overall. However, at times, her performance was a bit stiff and flat. Her co-lead did not help in this regard. I simply did not connect with James Nitti's (as Prince Edward) performance, it did not pull me in, at all. There was something off, at times, with his expressions and dialogue (a bit stiff and flat, as well). You could see this clearly in, for example, the scene about 30 minutes in where he is chatting with Laruen and her parents (some awkward acting here). The final scenes - the one where Lauren finds out the deception and confronts Edward - is another perfect example of what I am referring to regarding both of their performances: the scene was stiff and flat (and it looked like they were acting, which is never good for an actor) and lacked convincing chemistry between the two. The supporting cast was fairly good. Mariah Robinson (playing Chelsea) stood out for me; she had a strong performance. Finally, what is up with the title of the film? It had nothing to do with an engagement; this consisted of one scene (of a few seconds) at the end where Edward simply puts a ring on Lauren's finger. That is the engagement in A Royal Christmas Engagement.

I always think that the sign of a good movie is the chemistry between the actors. There is no chemistry whatsoever in this movie. And the main female character is so unappealing that it's annoying. She's like a cold fish. I'm sorry to be so harsh but this could have been a decent movie had better actors been cast.

The main lead character is simply icky. She is not polite, charming or cute. Plus, she reacts at everything with a smirk or a frown. She is just not someone I would like to watch for 1 1/2 hours, which is why I didn't.

Really wanted to like this film but the acting is so very bad. There is no connection between any of the actors let alone the leads. As another review said, if you've nothing else to do...find something. No one can give you back the wasted time from watching this.

Overused storyline made worse by having the lead narrate and give away the ending right at the beginning. It's not like as if anyone watching this don't already know how it's going to end (man gets woman / woman gets man), but the writers for some reason just had to confirm 2 minutes into the movie that we're getting that predictable ending.

There were some passable scenes throughout (when the dialogues were not awful), and the acting was actually ok, but the movie just felt too long at nearly 90 minutes. And some of the secondary characters were redundant and badly written.

This is one Christmas movie you should avoid for 2020. If you're bored and have nothing else to do, please call or facetime someone you haven't spoken to this year, feed your pet or spend that time looking up something better to watch. Do anything else but waste your time with this dud.