Royal-ish

The premise is pure Hallmark: Theme park princess meet handsome real life prince.

However, there are some very un-Hallmark issues here; the Princess is worried about aging out of her job and is frustrated by her unfinished educational goals, the prince's young daughter has emotional issues due to the death of her mother.

So, it's not perfect in this tale of fairy land meets real life fairy land.

The problem is how the Prince is portrayed. He talks in formal complete sentences and acts like his shorts are too small. A bad parody of what Americans think "Royals" are like.

Cardboard antagonists (the icy Queen and "Privy Council" head) are there to create roadblocks.

In private conversations the Prince acts and sounds entirely artificial. How about having him have two personas...one stuffy and "official" when acting in a official capacity and another where he talks and acts like a regular guy when talking to his daughter and the young woman trying to help her? The script DOES have him talk with the child and princess, but the actor uses the same tone all the time.

Do the Hallmark execs think a character with two facets (personas) is too subtle for audiences?

I hate to say it, but you have to blame the director here. A bit of subtle characterization would have done wonders here. I'm no Scorsese, but after watching a few takes I would if had the actor do the scene both ways...the traditional stilted Hallmark method, and one where the prince is acting less stereotypically "royal" when he needs to. When talking privately, make him a real person, not a stuffy stereotype.

Sakura does a wonderful job given her constraints, Moseley given his experience playing a modern prince in "The Royals" soap should have pushed his character to make him more realistic and relatable.

I hope to see more of Sakura, she comes across as much more real and worldly than the usual Hallmark lead female.

The basics were there to make it a much warmer, more dramatic and touching (but still HEA) film.

Hopefully Hallmark will let writers, directors and actors expand from their (admittedly successful) approach.

7.2 stars.

There are several interesting and somewhat charismatic characters in the story, which is why I give it the above average rating. It feels like a 6.9, but something about the atmosphere raised it a little.

Don't get me wrong, the story has been beaten-to-death and this movie does not stand out as anything particularly special. I enjoyed it sufficiently for a one-and-done, but the only chance of watching this ever again is if I run out of anything better, which I doubt will happen, considering I enjoyed hundreds, yes hundreds of Hallmark films more than this one.

But if you are planning on watching every royal-ish installment from Hallmark, this one is maybe a smidge above average. You might actually enjoy it, but I feel the plot and presentation are a bit deliberate and not original by any means. They modified the music a little to give it a slightly new feeling, not so much the usual royal horns and woodwinds, more strings and piano music, but that wasn't enough to make it stand out.

Never thought I would voluntarily sit through a hallmark movie but...boy did I enjoy it!!! The script? Whack. Costumes? Whack. Plot? Okay-ish. But holy snickerdoodles, William Mosely is not only a very good actor, able to make even some of the most absurd lines sound reasonable, he is also the finest British Beefcake I have had the pleasure of viewing upon in quite a while. Whenever he smiles and tiny crow's feet appear around the outer corners of his beautiful eyes I melt into a Mosely loving puddle. Also the way he interacted with his daughter and Lacey was so adorable and heart warming gosh. One thing I liked about this movie that didnt have anything to do with William and his wonderfullness was that it kinda felt like a children's movie? The relationship between Lacey and Henry is quite innocent, which was somewhat refreshing in the landscape of messed up romance movies we mostly see today. Anyways this movie just made me realise once again how much I'd love to see William Mosely return to Narnia in a movie about the Golden Era when the Pevensies are kings and queens.

Third of a "Royal" Trilogy aired on Hallmark Channel in March 2025. Prince Henry, lead male character of this film, Prince Desmond of Androvia, lead male character in THE ROYAL WE, and Johnny Payne, heir to the Dukedom of Glasswick, England and lead male character in THE RELUCTANT ROYAL, are all cousins and referenced as such at the ends of both other films. The other two were breaths of fresh air. I already have a separate review posted for THE RELUCTANT ROYAL. THE ROYAL WE was nearly as engaging with the same great chemistry between actors, and the plot twists.

This one was just your run-of-the-mill formulaic and predictable "European Crown Prince falls for middle class American working girl" movie, specifically the variant where the prince is widowed with a young daughter who bonds with the American working girl who becomes a mentor to her. The characters have good chemistry and young Francesca Europa is particularly charming as the young princess, but it's just not something anyone who watches Hallmark Channel or Great American Family hasn't seen at least a half-dozen times before.

Oh, well, two out of three ain't bad!

I've been a little over all the royal type movies in the last 5 years, but I happened upon the premier of this movie tonight. Oh. My. Gosh. This was a lovely movie! Love the casting and overall storyline. I was a big fan of the actress who played Cheyenne in Superstore, so seeing her in this role was a complete 180 to that character. Pleasantly surprised she plays both so well. It also took a deep dive into IMDB to realize the prince is Peter from Chronicles of Narnia. Chemistry was fantastic and believable. While we all know basically how these movies end, this was still a really nice watch. Highly recommend!