The Royal We

I feel bad for Mallory Jansen. Her very first appearance in this movie was ghastly as the character Bea has been mourning a very recent breakup by abusing herself with ice cream and sweets. It truly was a memorable look and not flattering. The first of many laughs.

While Bea's BFF, Chloe is played by Rae Lim a little over the top, Mallory is an excellent comedic foil while still being the main protagonist. The dialogue between them and between Bea and the prince's party is sparkling and funny. The dialogue between the elders (mostly the Kings) of the two families is supposed to be funny, but the sarcasm has more bite to it.

Mallory also does a good job switching between her two personalities. There is the transplanted Bostonian (but with a more neutral American accent rather than a Boston one). And there is the educated multilingual Princess whose sentences always use the royal We.

This premise is really unusual. Two Royals building a relationship, not one. Bea is coerced into being courted by Prince Desmond as a prelude to engagement to allow a chance for peace to be negotiated between the two countries.

What follows, that is the courting process, is entertaining. There is more good dialogue. Mallory appears to be enjoying her role as she tries to loosen up the Prince.

I found a quick scene between Bea and her mother interesting in the way it turned the common theme of the sacrifice of royal responsibility in reverse. Bea is seen convincing the Queen that it was necessary for Bea to sacrifice her previously simple life for the good of the kingdom.

The story evolves in ways you might expect but with plenty of fun and laughs. Even the climax is properly irreverent.

And one final clever addition at the very end, while our couple discusses invitations for a coming gathering, they just happen to incidentally introduce the main characters for the coming Hallmark Royal movies in March.

I have to add that I am usually condescending about Royal movies, but this is one of the best ones I can remember. It is simply well done.

Added one week later: I often say one of the real tests of how much you like a movie is if you watch it again. I've watched this completely twice more and enjoyed it all three times.

Sit back, relax be ready for a movie that shouldn't be taken too seriously and just enjoy the fun!

This is the story of Princess Bea, who has lived her life in Boston, away from her royal duties and obligations. Her older sister, Coralina elopes with a plumber, so now Bea must step in and honor the arranged marriage to help end a conflict and establish peace between two countries. Although Bea reluctantly agrees to the marriage. Bea asks her long time college friend and business partner, Chloe, to accompany her to her home country for the wedding. She meets her fiancée, Crown Prince Desmond and encourages him to break royal protocol, and take time to be more authentic, spontaneous and just have some fun and enjoy life.

Mallory Jansen is my favorite Hallmark female actress, and she is perfectly cast as Princess Bea, and plays the role superbly! Charlie Carrick plays Desmond and does an excellent job as the Crown Prince. The two have great chemistry together, although there were several magical scenes with the couple, I just wish they incorporated a bit more actual romance between Bea and Desmond to emphasize that they were falling for one another. On a sour note I felt Chloe and the two country Kings overacted in their roles. The rest of the supporting cast was fine. Overall, the witty and humorous dialogue, the beautiful scenery, and acting of Jansen and Carrick make this a cute engaging movie that holds your interest and keeps you entertained!

Another dumb Hallmark movie about "royalty". Hallmark should stay thousands of miles away from any movie with royals. Anyone who has seen "The Crown" laughs at these "royal rom-coms". Leave these type of films to Netflix, they do a far better job with this topic because they have better researchers and writers.

The script and dialog are a disaster, the casting is questionable. Rae Lim is terrible as Chloe along with the two kings If they are going to go cheap on the script, then hire some good actors. Making movies isn't cheap and this one was a waste of good money. Another waste of money are the serials like the one about a wedding veil which was dumb.

Good plot but wardrobe failure. If the goal of the movie producers and costume designer was to make the Princess/would be Queen look 50 years old--mission accomplished. Her royal wardrobe was frumpy, boring, and just plain ugly. I agree with other reviewers that movie plot was above average and nice to see new faces from Hallmark. How could this happen when there are good examples to use for royal fashion inspiration in Princess Catherine of UK and Queen Leticia of Spain. I've not written a review on this site before andI have very rarely had an issue with wardrobe. It's a sad misstep --especially as the actress playing the Princess/would-be Queen is lovely. She deserved to be better dressed.

6.7 stars.

If I were rating the scrip, dialogue and overall entertainment value only, this would be a 5.7. But I must take into account the cinematography, story, mood and setting, and other various aspects that felt quite adeptly presented.

The overall production is obviously on a higher plane than your average Hallmark, and everything felt like it should have wowed. But there were a few major factors that fell well short of the mark. For me, entertainment value is the most important, which this movie lacks. A close second, which generally goes hand in hand is rewatchability, and I have no desire to revisit this film.

'The Royal We' is simply missing chemistry and urgency, there's no yearning for love, no anticipation, no flow. It's just a very nice movie with no substance. It does not evoke an emotional reaction.

I really like the lead female, thus I raise my rating another bit from 6.0 to 6.4, and the ending was somewhat endearing, thus elevating it to 6.7, so as to round up to 7. This is for the sake of consistency, because good quality movie making and high production value account for something.