I stumbled upon this movie last year because I thought it would make a nice companion piece to things like household chores (folding laundry) or writing out Christmas cards. But I've come back to it a couple times because it's actually a sweet, feel-good fairy tale with appealing leads. Melissa runs a little diner in Brooklyn that infuses its comfort food recipes with creative flair and Prince Jack is in town from the vaguely Saxon-esque kingdom of Edgemont for a big charity banquet. It's Christmas and it's a rom-com, so you see where it's going. Overall, I think it's worth the 90-minute watch time if you're doing your hair or some other hands-on task, and it makes you want to look out for Mompremiere and Burns in other productions. How about an alluring international spy thriller?! They both look like they can handle stunts.
Alas, there are significant weak points. Some of them can't be fixed, like the cheap production value. I don't know why Hollywood has to churn out movies like these on a conveyor belt. To fill airtime on all the cable and streaming services? Maybe. But this is an example of what not to do even on a tight budget. Prince Jack's hotel is downscale, not simplified and modern, like the W. The interior of the palace in his native country of Edgemont-a name that sounds like a Mid-Atlantic suburb, not a small European country-doesn't even try to be grand. It looks like a model home in a new neighborhood, not a historic palace of said European country. There has to have been a more ornate, wood-paneled salon in an historic grand house somewhere or maybe a small, rentable castle in Scotland that could have stood in for this emblem of a kingdom. Rupert's jackets are ill-fitting, also making Edgemont look cheap.
The script badly needed some Jessica tightening. She's a restaurant owner in Brooklyn, and that's supposed to count against her. Well, the last I heard Brooklyn has moved up in the world and is no longer an automatic backwater or Manhattan's ugly sister. There are lots of pricey, trendy neighborhoods where affluent, trendy people want to eat, and where a creative and driven chef with culinary arts training could make her stand. Why not write in some solid credentials for Melissa, then hang framed photos of her with big shots stopping by her diner? Instead of Prince Jack overstepping, tracking her to her parents' house and looking at her baby pictures with her mom, how about making that a scrapbook of articles about her graduation, winning awards and a few glowing press reviews for her restaurant? The restaurant game is probably highly competitive, so it's easy to imagine an accomplished chef running The Little Diner That Could, but that still gets looked at as the underdog.
Hollywood, please STOP hiring actors whose foreign accents are a tragedy. I know this is an improbable fairy tale and we're not going for realism, but if they can't simulate a European accent or any other kind of accent, they break the illusion. Also, instead of trying to depict a three-person throng of paparazzi, how about a shot of a lone photographer parked a distance away from Jessica and Prince Jack, and show him or her pointing a long-range lens at the couple? Then the pictures end up on Page Seven (cheap movie, can't afford the licensing) the next day. Mompremiere and Burns did their best to depict Jack and Jessica evading the press, but that paparazzi scene was almost a joke for the three lumbering, middle-aged photographers who looked like any fit prince and his leggy lady friend could easily out sprint. Geez.
There were other issues, too, like the weird interlude shots of the cooking. Whose recipes are those, and where are they being prepared? Since this is a 90-minute Christmas rom-com, let me help you with a meet cute. Jessica is looking cute in a pretty Christmas sweater, an apron and fingerless gloves. She steps out of her diner with a sandwich board and has a good morning for everyone because it's Christmas and she runs a business that thrives on hospitality. While she's writing Prince Jack's car comes around the corner. He gets out and is walking down the street just as she completes her menu descriptions. Prince Jack reads the menu highlights, which are pretty good and have him intrigued, because he's looking for alternatives. She caps her chalk pen, stands up and spins around in time to crash into Prince Jack. They laugh it off and interrupt each other with apologies, and she insists on inviting him in for a coffee on the house, because she runs The Little Diner That Could and she wants to show off her Christmas menu specials. The standoffish, borderline soup nazi that the script and direction made of Jessica had no place in a 90-minute Christmas rom-com, especially with Jack flashing those baby brown eyes all over the place.
Jessica's surprisingly lackadaisical about accepting Prince Jack's offer, and we should have seen her Instagram page showcasing her recipes, then hit the restaurant supply warehouses or whatever with Jack, instead of lollygagging on faux dates with Jack to looking for recipe inspiration. The dinner scene with he queen was believable and a little improbable, too. Yes, I can imagine a woman like her looking down on Jessica for some reason, but the movie sidestepped what the queen's bigger issue with Jessica might have been. I know, it's a romance and they didn't want to get heavy. But it was glaring.
So that's my take on the movie. Nice fluff that somehow was rough around the edges.
