William & Kate - Una favola moderna

As expected, this movie received a lot of bashing and ridicule in the UK because it is an American made biopic about the Royal Family. After watching it out of curiosity, I felt like writing a review because it really wasn't that bad. Based very loosely on the events that led up to the engagement of Willam and Kate, the film suffers slightly by showing a pretty unremarkable series of events that culminate in the blossoming of a romance. The film makers must have been frustrated by the fact that nothing really newsworthy has happened in this story so far...maybe they should have waited a bit longer! The fun for me of course was spotting how much of this looks nothing like it was made in the UK. Stock footage of Big Ben and red buses is interspersed with the cast being shown in wide city avenues that look nothing like London, and buildings that look little like the architecture we have here. The actors sport British accents which hold up fairly well, but occasionally slip, but for the most part the cast manages OK. The two central leads perform pretty well.

The movie is filmed in a glossy style that resembles an episode of "Gossip Girl", ie lots of swanking about in streets and colleges, and scenes set in exotic nightclubs and restaurants. It doesn't always convince, some of the special effects show that a lot of CGI backgrounds have been added outside of windows (and very obviously in that final "African sunset" scene!). But I suspect the film was made in a hurry, so for this reason, most of it looks pretty good. It just doesn't look much like England! But I do think the amount of scorn dished out here in the UK is unfair. Just because another country tries to make a semi-fictional representation of events that go on here does not give us the right to ridicule every part of it that they get wrong. And I'll admit that in the above paragraph, I have had some fun in doing just that. But I am not condemning the whole film as a failure just because it was made in another country and because I can spot geographical errors.

Whats interesting (and has possibly upset some UK viewers) is the use of sensitive facts for dramatic purposes. At one point William turns to his father (Prince Charles) and angrily barks "Did you ever really love my mother? If you loved Camilla, why didn't you just marry her?" It's juicy fodder for drama, and harmless in this context, but likely to make a few viewers prickle a bit.

So, I've had a bit of a laugh, but I didn't think it was that ridiculous. The film will probably disappear after the fuss of the wedding is over, but I am sure it entertained a lot of US viewers who enjoy all things royal. The main fault is that nothing really interesting has happened in this story so far, therefore there is very little plot! Put simply, and it would probably be almost impossible for one nation to make a realistic film about events set in another country, without that country being able to find fault with it.

Now I understand that William and Kate was made in haste, that actually didn't bother me. And I don't mind romantic comedies, though I am also not a fan of the genre either, and I wasn't expecting a history lesson either while watching William and Kate.

But- I am really sorry, I didn't see the point of this movie. Now I will say I did like the glossy sheen to the film's look and I loved the locations. And while I thought little of the acting, two actors did at least try. One was Nico Evers-Swindell, while not looking much like William he does try very hard acting-wise and it shows. The other is Ben Cross as Prince Charles, it is not a great performance by all means, but he does take a fair stab at the accent and mannerisms.

But the other acting is pretty dire. Camilla Luddington fits the bill better than Evers-Swindell looks-wise does but the good things end there. Her acting is very forced and she has a very inconsistent accent. The pace is a let down as well, some of it is rushed(I blame the direction mostly in regards to this) not helped by a running-time that is too short, and some scenes move very pedantically and slowly contributing to the dullness of the romantic aspect to this film.

The story is structured poorly. It didn't bother me that the film was highly inaccurate and fictionalised. What actually did bother me was that a lot of it is uninteresting and dull and filled with clichés- not just in the story elements and characters but also in the tag line!- that have been used to death. In fact, the whole is largely reminiscent of a badly done soap opera. Also neither the comedy or romantic(which the film emphasises more of) aspects here work. The comedy is cheesy and contrived and the romance is unconvincing further disadvantaged by the lack of genuine chemistry between the two leads.

Where William and Kate really fails is in the direction and screenplay. The direction is awful, the overall impression I got of the direction here was that it was soulless and sluggish, and as for some of the camera angles they were very rushed in look and oddly placed and focused. The screenplay if humanly possible was even worse. A vast majority of the dialogue was excruciatingly embarrassing, rather than being amused or touched I found myself grimacing or making WTF? faces. And did I mention that there is a complete lack of likability or sympathy for the characters? All in all, poor and unnecessary with only the glossy look and two decent actors salvaging it from being a complete stinker. 3/10 Bethany Cox

What upset me about this film was its serious omissions. Allow me to elaborate:-

The Royal Family eating off gold plate while a starving populus looks helplessly on.

The Queen ordering her Prime Minister to get the Hussars to sabre the miners marching on the Palace in protest at their 18hr working day.

The Irish, too weak to resist on their diet of blighted potatoes, forced to contribute their savings to allay the expense of the Royal Wedding.

Beefeaters preventing the ragged girl with the twisted foot from entering Parliament to get some money for her operation.

Worst of all, no mention of how the 7th Cavalry saved Prince William when his helicopter got into difficulties over Afghanistan.

Apart from these few minor gripes an excellent film.

This was way better then I expected for a hastily put together, made-for-TV movie. Although it could just be that because I watched it right after the royal wedding and was all caught up in that magic of that event I just wanted a bit more and didn't really care.

This movie deals almost exclusively with William and Kate's relationship and his time at St Andrews college. I don't know how much of the story is true? My guess would be none of the personal stuff they show. You do however still get a feel for William's loneliness, the microscope he lives under, the ever present paparazzi and how his future is mapped out for him.

The only other royal represented in the movie is Prince Charles but you do get to see Kate's commoner family, who I really liked.

Ultimately this is a love story and the perfect bit of cheese to watch before or after the royal wedding. The actor who played William (Nico Evers-Swindell) was very good. 05.11

Mindnumbingly dumb dialogues, a cast that looks like fresh from a porn set, this movie is full of unintentional jokes.

When I first saw the trailer, I really thought it was a Funny or Die parody of the royal wedding.

I loved it, but for all the wrong reasons. The whole movie seems to have been created in a rush to cash in on the wedding hysteria and its a good example for really bad dialogues, clumsy schoolplay level acting and a totally ridiculous script full of prejudices against Britons. It's hilarious!

So if you want to cringe, you'll enjoy this movie. But don't bring any Kleenexes, you won't need them.