Royal-ish

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!

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.

Take a look at Princess Sweet Pea and watch her in the formal Tea Party where she meets Prince Henry and the impression one takes away is that not only is this a fantasy story, but the people producing it don't expect any other impression. It's cute. It parodies a little what goes on at a famous theme park we know where there is a store that you can take you little princess to buy a dress and visit the beauty salon to get all made up. If you have never been, yes, there is such a place and I could easily see this scene playing out there.

But then the story leaves the fantasy castle and theme park and goes out into the world leading eventually back to Henry's mother's kingdom.

We have a fanciful story that has what you need for a carefree fun time. Lacey is so good with Sophie that if it doesn't bring a tear, at least you want to go "Ahh".

But there is a bit of darkness in the kingdom as well. Many of these Royal romance stories have a Queen who always gives off a serious vibe and often some chastising as well. But if that's not enough there is also a royal advisor who is even more depressing. Obviously a potential villain, but he is almost as bad as "he who shall never be named".

If ever there was a commoner who didn't belong in the prince's world, it is Lacey who ironically has a job as a princess in a fantasy world.

As often happens where a child is as important to the story as this one, Lacey's screen time is split between Sophie and Henry making it harder to see chemistry between Nichole Sakura and William Moseley. The real chemistry is between Sakura and Francesca Europa as Rose.

I often complain in this genre about a character completely changing personality instantly. Emily Swan does that in spades as the queen.

In general terms the story is predictable. The obstacle to the romance is just like it is in so many Royal romance movies. The reconciliation is a little cute.

Because of some of the unusual, even quirky aspects of this story, there are some highlights. I mentioned the sentimental and the fanciful.

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.

Hallmark isn't good at producing "royal" themed movies, the plots and scripts are usually dumb and the dialog inane. That's the case with this movie, plus the female lead doesn't really work. William Moseley was in a far better movie "Christmas in Notting Hill" in 2023. The supporting cast were generally good.

The plot of this one is cliched, it's been done many times and most of the times they've bombed, like this movie. Hallmark really needs a new head of production who can find good scripts and good leads and make good rom-coms, their specialty. As always the filming locations in Canada are beautiful.