Christmas with a Prince

One of the many movies with a royal and a commoner. This one's, however, a little different because heroes knew each other already since they went to school together. Then there's the usual - prince comes from an unspecified Eastern European country (even the heroine speaks Russian for no apparent reason), and of course, an evil wannabe noble fiancé. Throw in a few kids with cancer and a royal gala, and you can imagine the result. Some dialogues are corny, characters are flat (the prince-obsessed nurse was really cringey rather than funny), and the acting isn't the best either (especially during dramatic scenes). Also never seen a doctor with such a short dress, and if it wasn't for some costumes and presents, one wouldn't even notice that it's supposed to be Christmastime. However, if you can look past the above-mentioned issues and expected clichés, it is actually a quite enjoyable movie. The only really terrible part was the party at the end.

I watch a lot of cheesy Christmas movies. They're dumb. They're predictable. But they're fun to watch. Usually. I've seen plenty of stinkers, but this one takes the cake. It was so awful, I wanted to run away screaming, but by golly I finished it. First of all, no one stays in the hospital for weeks for a broken leg. The prince could have easily just flown home to recover and I could have been spared this torture. Everything was so awful. The plot, script, acting, costumes, music, just everything. By the end of the movie, I had lost the will to live.

Love Christmas with all my heart. Love the fun and nostalgia it brings, and cherish all the time spent with family and friends every year. Recently wanted to see some different and new Christmas films released in 2018 and 2019 to stretch my horizons beyond the ones traditionally watched every year. Feelings have been extremely mixed doing this and even when trying to take them for what they're meant to be some have been lacking (though there have been some surprisingly good ones too).

'Christmas with a Prince' was one of those that was lacking, am saying this with a heavy having always made it a duty of mine. There are certainly far worse festive films out there and it is not even one of the very worst seen as part of my quest. Generally though it was towards the lesser end, with its moments but with a lot done badly. One expects cheese and schmaltz from reading the premise alone but not both excessively done and balanced poorly, or almost everything handled in a near-amateurish manner.

Sure, there are moments. The scenery is lovely to look at. The music captures the festive spirit with great affection, although some of the placement was questionable.

There are a few amusing moments and a few very cute ones.

Unfortunately the scenery was not properly done justice, suggestive of somebody behind the camera that had too much to drink on a long night out. The direction is some of the most disorganised and leaden for any film seen recently and of all the recently seen Christmas films, clearly having no idea what to do with the story and the direction of the actors.

Likewise, the script has no tension or emotional connection and is ruined by an overload of the cheesiest of cheese and equally excessive difficult to stomach sentimentality. The chemistry between the actors, especially the two leads, is so disconnected and the story jumps around and is so dreary and predictable not to mention jawdrop inducing daft. None of the characters are worth identifying with and actually found myself irritated by them, especially the doctor. Nobody looks comfortable in their roles and either over-compensate or don't try.

In summary, a charmless Christmas. 3/10

Most of you missed the point. Christmas is a time for miracles. A romantic interest was a sub plot. Merry Christmas everyone.

So, the lighting was amazing and dialogue was "above average" for this kind of movie. The film suffered from attention to detail and rushed character arcs and development. Attention to detail: 1. Royal outfits. I feel like the royal outfits at the end of the movie were cheesy. The ribbons didn't look right, material looked cheap...I dunno it sort of ruined an aspect of the look. Unfortunately, when outfits like that don't look right, they end up coming across as very cheesy. 2. Doctor Smockter. Kaitlyn is a good actor and shows a lot of emotion through the movie. That being said, there apparently was zero training/prep for her to actually behave remotely like a doctor. The dialogue (though great for this kind of movie- and amazing in certain scenes) didn't even try to be technically accurate at all. Just the way she handle's the patient's charts in some scenes is comical. Someone should have done their job checking for professional accuracy. 3. There is one. Just one big musical number by guest country star Genevieve Fisher and they couldn't get the audio right on it. The sync between the video and audio is noticeably off to where it looks like she is lip syncing. WHY WOULD YOU GET AN AMAZING TALENTED SINGER THEN HAVE IT LOOK FAKE? Sorry, that is my musician side coming out. Kudos for getting a real artist. The guitarist was good too! ------ The Story & Characters The story and set up was plausible enough. I really ended up enjoying a lot of the interplay and character-moments between both the main cast as well as the supporting cast. The romance between supporting actors Josh Dean and the very beautiful Melinda Shankar was, in some aspects, more interesting and fun than the romance of the main two characters. I feel that the ending scene between the two was a bit "rushed". A lot of times movies like this will have side characters (like an older couple- usually a parent of the female lead's character and another) who have a side-romance, and it is so fake and choppy. This one was actually fun. Their action was great for both of their characters and in some scenes where Josh's character was "ultra campy" was obviously more the fault of a section of weak writing and not the actor's fault. The children in this movie are adorable. Children actors are really a "roll of the dice" when it comes to quality, and in this movie they did quite well. ------ My favorite scene: There is a scene at the end of the movie between Dr. Tasha Mason (Kaitlyn) and King Edward (Charles Shaughnessy). The dialogue was exceptional and the delivery incredible. It was because of the talent of Charles that I've added him to the list of male actors with incredible voices. Actors such as Idris Elba, Liam Neeson, Morgan Freeman and others. The lighting on him was amazing too...could have been like 5% better on Kaitlyn but that is very picky. Anyways, the lighting, his voice, the dialogue was just incredible and for a scene the movie transcended other films of this ilk and became something more. Something like a high quality movie. Something I would want to watch...and I did, re-watch that specific monologue quite a few times. Thank you for reading!