The story is even more ridiculous than even most royal movies, but some of it is the acting. Carrie acts disappointed at being put off by the prince as if she might actually expect to catch his eye. The fact that she does catch his eye is obviously the norm in a royal movie, but for her to expect it takes the cliche to new levels. Her presumption is reinforced by how quickly she becomes familiar with him and treats him like she would a casual friend.
The story provides a pre-packaged villainess who is a cardboard cutout of the mean arrogant prima ballerina. She has no depth of character. She could not be more obvious about the prince if she actually turned green.
As implied above, the acting is bad almost across the board especially the main characters. Lines are delivered with little natural about them. And that dialogue is poor as well. Did I mention cheap sets?
One of the running gags is food, especially sweets. Calories galore. Brought by Carrie to a dance school. Carrie, a ballerina herself, eats her share of calories. And not to criticize Daniela Couso, but Medea does not have the frame of a professional ballerina (nor does her dancing double if there is one).
The setup for the conflict in the romance is clumsily contrived. As bad as that is, the movie only goes downhill from there, several notches.
This movie is a prime example of everything that is bad about so many royal Christmas movies. It also confirms a belief I have about quality of GAF in movies without their more popular stars.
