A Royal Christmas Engagement

ION Television has made some good Christmas movies over the years, for example, Best Christmas Ball Ever (a very good Christmas movie), A Christmas Kiss, A Christmas Kiss II, and The Spruces & the Pines. Unfortunately, this movie is not one of them. The writer here draws on a very popular plot device: deception and mistaken identity. This year alone, we have seen make-believe relationships (in, e.g., Holidate, Midnight at the Magnolia, and Happiest Season), princess switches (in The Princess Switch: Switched Again), fake five-star bed and breakfast staff (in Five Star Christmas), and fake company executives (in If I Only Had Christmas). This movie uses the classic 'incognito royals': the royal (usually a prince) pretends to be a 'commoner' and ends up falling in love with one of them, they find out, they break-up, they make-up and live happily ever after. The story in this one is your classic version of this. It is quite ordinary and predictable. The lines and dialogue too are quite dull, and at times, aren't great. The scenes where the Prince (aka Prince Edward) explains why he wants to go to the US (to find himself/ to be himself) and the scene at the end (where the commoner, aka Lauren, confronts the Princes with his deception) are examples of very ordinary, run of the mill dialogue. The acting is not that much better, I'm afraid. Paige Bach (playing Lauren) had a decent performance overall. However, at times, her performance was a bit stiff and flat. Her co-lead did not help in this regard. I simply did not connect with James Nitti's (as Prince Edward) performance, it did not pull me in, at all. There was something off, at times, with his expressions and dialogue (a bit stiff and flat, as well). You could see this clearly in, for example, the scene about 30 minutes in where he is chatting with Laruen and her parents (some awkward acting here). The final scenes - the one where Lauren finds out the deception and confronts Edward - is another perfect example of what I am referring to regarding both of their performances: the scene was stiff and flat (and it looked like they were acting, which is never good for an actor) and lacked convincing chemistry between the two. The supporting cast was fairly good. Mariah Robinson (playing Chelsea) stood out for me; she had a strong performance. Finally, what is up with the title of the film? It had nothing to do with an engagement; this consisted of one scene (of a few seconds) at the end where Edward simply puts a ring on Lauren's finger. That is the engagement in A Royal Christmas Engagement.

The script is so poorly written. I cannot begin to describe how cringy the whole storyline is. The leading actress character was so snobby and egoistic. The actors weren't good either. I would definitely not suggest it to anyone.

The main lead character is simply icky. She is not polite, charming or cute. Plus, she reacts at everything with a smirk or a frown. She is just not someone I would like to watch for 1 1/2 hours, which is why I didn't.

Watched 'A Royal Christmas Engagement' with not the highest of expectations, fairly mixed actually. While loving Christmas for as long as can be remembered and having seen some surprisingly good Christmas films recently, films mixing Christmas and royalty have always varied with most ranging between mediocre and decent (with also some good and bad ones). The title sounded sweet but the concept sounded so been there, done that and flimsy.

The execution is even flimsier and actually turned out to be worse than expected, making for a right royal mess of a Christmas engagement (which turned out to not be much of one) and film. As much as it pains me to say it, as someone who is often generous-striving and who has always tried to see the good in the bad. With 'A Royal Christmas Engagement', it was actually quite hard to find any redeeming merits in a film with so many flaws and most of them awfully executed. Of all the films mixing Christmas and royalty, 'A Royal Engagement Engagement' for me is easily among the worst.

Only the beautiful looking castle stops the film from being a complete and utter disaster. And perhaps also an engaging turn from Mariah Robinson.

A beautiful looking castle however that was done no favours by the drab and poorly framed photography and the editing could have done with a tightening up. 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. The music is not particularly memorable and could have been used more subtly in placement and tone.

Furthermore one does expect cheese and schmaltz and allows some leeway, but both are so excessive quantity wise here (especially the cheese) that it was hard to take. And even more so when balanced so amateurishly. The story does absolutely nothing new with a premise that has been done to death and the formula is pretty much exactly what is expected. Emotionally, 'A Royal Christmas Engagement' falls completely flat and is barely existent. Everything is so disconnected and awkward and the charm and heart are just not there.

Neither is the character development, with the film overdoing it with the character flaws (especially Lauren's) and the characters don't grow. Neither does the inconsistently paced romance, that is under-utilised, barely there most of the time and then shows a little development abruptly for convenience sake. There is no tension, with the obligatory mis-understanding being so contrived and silly in execution, and the ending is too neat and rushed. Other than Robinson, the acting is really not good. Paige Bach has no warmth and plays her cold fish role too stiffly and coldly. James Nitti is even stiffer and overdoes the uptight-ness and awkwardness, coming over as too much of an introvert. There is no chemistry between them at all, which made everything after the deception discovery completely unbelievable.

Concluding, very bad and pretty much a mess. 2/10.

Another generic royal movie ION seems to be making every year now. Sure we all know how it's going to end, but this one tells you right at the beginning just in case you had some doubts. Let's put in some average unknown actors and give them funny surnames like Luck, Holiday, or Charles for the prince. Then show bird's eye shots of Neuschwanstein Castle and Lake Bled (not sure why the second one was there besides it being pretty to look at) and some indoor scenes that could be shot pretty much anywhere. The prince wants to do something meaningful with his life, which in this case means giving advice about chocolate to a female marketer in New York while being incognito... And what's up with those sappy telenovela flashback montages? I've seen two ION movies recently, and they both had them. They even used the same song as in A Prince for Christmas/Small Town Prince in this movie. The engagement part was also totally out of place and seemed like it was there only for them to have something to put into the title behind the standard "Royal Christmas". Not the worst movie, but no aspiration for originality. It's just the same as all others.