Il était une fois un prince

I like plots where the situation causes the tension rather than the characters' meddling so the first part of this one was fine. However I'm exhausted from overbearing mother movies and couldn't make it to the end. Public life is not an easily-solved fairytale and the sooner movies stop depicting the Disney Princess format, the better.

Was very mixed on the 2018 Spring Fever films. There were a couple of pleasant surprises, such as 'Royal Matchmaker'. There were also a couple of duds, such as 'Home by Spring'. My expectations for 'Once Upon a Prince' to be honest were not exactly high, despite the chance to see a cast that didn't have any of the Hallmark regular actors royalty and romance have been proven too many times to not work and it was a premise that felt tired long before this was made.

'Once Upon a Prince' turned out to be a pleasant surprise. Not one of the very best 2018 Hallmark films, or their films overall, and not much new is done with this well worn premise. It is though is one of the better 2018 Spring Fever films and proves that romance and royalty in Hallmark can work with the right execution. That it didn't have any of the regular Hallmark actors (i.e. Lacey Chabert, Danica McKellar, Andrew Walker, Tyler Hynes, like most by the way) proved to be a plus too.

It isn't perfect. It does not admittedly have any surprises and follows the formula by the letter (while doing it better than most Hallmark romance/royalty films). Did feel too that some decisions were made too quickly, such as the decision to marry made just like that without a second's thought, and motivations rushed through a bit.

Did find some of the character writing too much on the one dimensional side (Jonathan Keltz's character veering on being a little too perfect), like there could have been more of why the queen domineered that much and what made her change her mind so easily perhaps.

However, despite how that sounds, 'Once Upon a Prince' does a lot of things well. Keltz was confident, without being overly so, and charming, very at home as a royal character. Megan Park looks radiant and also has an easy going charm without coming over as affected. They are incredibly cute together and are genuine as a coupling, appreciated too that the relationship wasn't rushed and took time to grow without taking too long. The supporting cast may have very cliched characters, but fill them well. Sara Botsford does domineering and regal very convincingly, without overdoing too much.

Furthermore, 'Once Upon a Prince' looks very nice especially the locations, and the music is not drab or intrusive. The film is directed with assurance, though never anything that goes wow. The script is not too cheesy (though there are some admittedly in the early stages of the film) or sugary and it at least flows, and while the story is predictable and not perfectly paced it's light hearted and charming with nothing that can be seen as offensive.

Overall, nice film and worth watching if not a must. 7/10.

On a Georgian island, Susanna Truitt (Megan Park) works at her parents' gardening store. She has a bad day. Instead of a marriage proposal from long-time boyfriend Adam, he dumps her. She expected a life including starting her landscape architecture business with him. She gets a flat tire but then dashing Nate comes to her rescue. When her father is hospitalized, he volunteers to help out at the store. He gets her a landscape design job for the high class Mrs. Waller. What she doesn't know is that he's a real prince of Cambria and a photographer catches them together. The Queen is unhappy and orders him home.

Megan Park is cute. The prince is cute. It's not the most daring of coupling but they are cute. It's cute. Royalty in one of these TV romance movies often struggles for scale. That's the case here. The castle is not much of a castle. The royal grandeur is not that grand. There are a couple of nice gardens but that's the limits of the production. The story has limited drama. It's a cute Hallmark movie but it's not that much.

For me this movie was kind of flat, but I can't say i did not enjoy it, I also cannot say I plan to watch it again. Its nowhere in the class of a 'princess for christmas' or 'Once upon a Holiday', but it is better than one or two others royal Christmas style movies Hallmark has put out.

Nothing about this movie stood out for me, and nothing about it brought it down. While I went and bought the two I afore mentioned, I would not buy this one.

As in most hallmark movies, this one is very clean- PG. It does have humorous moments and a few serious ones. If U are looking for an escape from the modern movie body counts, foul language, cigarettes and drugs that often dominate movies today, U will be relieved to watch this and will enjoy it to some extent.

The story is pretty much what you would expect.

What does set this apart is the fact that the movie avoids all the most of the cringeworthy moments of other movies in the genre.

The Queen and the long time girlfriend don't descend into hyperbole very often, the prince himself isn't a complete moron, and no one overdoes the royal pantomime too much.

Add in some slightly above average one liners, a better quality cast than normal (most of them seem to have some meatier roles on their resume) and a bit of chemistry between the leads, and you have a solid 8 from me.

It is complete trash, but it is high quality complete trash.