Il était une fois à Castlebury

I watch this movie every Christmas and it never disappoints! It's fun and light-hearted. The Christmas decorations are beautiful and the castle is gorgeous! It has great leads and a nice story. Overall, it's a great Christmas movie to watch for the holidays.

one of Christmas film. seductive for its childish story, using of expectations of public , beautiful Peleș Castle and Roger Moore. and, sure, few Romanian actors. so, not great expectations or critics. because it is only a fairy tale, the classic fairy tale of Cinderella, using Christmas as pretext for remind the joy of love, family spirit, the prince and the poor girl, the dreams of childhood who becomes reality. all in a seductive story who is real charming. so, it could become a classic of the season. because it has grace and beauty and nice performances and the right cast. and this is the most important fact. to discover the spirit of Christmas as pure form of joy and flavor of fairy tale.

A romantic, modern day fairy tale that is perfect for all the family, but especially for young girls and their Mothers, Grandmothers and their Granddaughters, Aunts & nieces, etc.

Boys, be warned, this may all be a tad emotionally mushy for your taste, but who knows, you may learn some wonderful manners during the process of watching it. Every little girl (and we are all little girls at heart), dreams of being treated like a princess, whether they like to admit it or not.

The beautiful Katie McGrath plays the lead female role and I felt at times, she gave a rather wooden performance that actually enhanced her displays of awkwardness in an unfamiliar situation and so rather than distance the viewer, it actually made her character more endearing to them.

It was wonderful to see Sir Roger Moore acting again, in his typical, suave male role.

A wonderful Christmas Fairy Story.

It was predictable but nevertheless a fairly good movie. The worse part of the movie was the actor playing Milo. He couldn't have been worse in his over acting and bad casting for the part. Much in the genre of 'A Crown for Christmas '.

There are slight offerings from cable channels (Ion, Freeform, BET) and then there are deluges (Hallmark, Lifetime) when it comes to Christmas movies. And I've seen EVERY SINGLE ONE OF THEM (it takes me until March to view them on the DVR). Although I don't have the time to comment on all of them, I certainly have enough experience under my belt to review this pleasant, unassuming entry from 2011. It stars Katie McGrath (Supergirl) and a slight Sam Heughan (before he became rugged and buff for Outlander).

To acknowledge the elephants in the room: -Yes, the American accents of the non-Americans playing Americans do noticeably slip. -Yes, it's a fairy tale and redundant; nothing new here. -Yes, Katie McGrath smiles way too much. -Yes, the brashness of Americans is overplayed to create an unsubtle chasm on cultural differences for the sake of the plot.

However, I found the movie to be quite charming, with flawless chemistry between the two leads. At least 90% of the Christmas movies I view are awful and forgettable (sorry, Hallmark). But this offering takes a tired formula and refreshes it with real life situations (an aunt raising an orphan niece and nephew) and kids who actually ACT LIKE KIDS, not sickly sweet and/or perfect angels (thank you, Michael Damian). In short, acknowledge the flaws, but enjoy the performances and the stunning, breathtaking scenery.