Una tata in incognito

The Royal Nanny is an easy to watch Christmas movie from the 2022 holiday batch. The acting is solid and the storyline has a different twist, departing from the usual commoner-among-royalty theme, mixing in a bit of British secret service with some who-done-it (in lieu of the standard "misunderstanding" trope) as well as some Mary Poppins and a lot of British Royal mystique. It doesn't follow the usual Royal cookie-cutter formula, making for a unique story that is complicated only by the G rating. It would be interesting to see the caper fully developed outside of Hallmark. The Royal Nanny is definitely worthy of 90 minutes of attention.

Hallmark nailed it with this unique, witty, and heartwarming movie. A+ acting from all involved, and the accents from the non-English actors were actually quite well done! The mystery component was a huge plus and kept me guessing until the end of the movie. The kids being pranksters as opposed to brats was also a pleasant surprise, as these "royal" movies often feature spoiled children. They were both adorable and fun to watch.

It's always refreshing when Hallmark does something different like this, and this movie will be memorable for sure. I would happily watch it again. Please keep it up, Hallmark!

We enjoyed the characters and the actors and actresses very much. The story, although a little off, followed along naturally in a typical pleasant Hallmark fashion. It was a cozy evening, easy to watch movie. The children actors were not obnoxious and actually knew their lines. The Royal movies often go astray with an abundance of awful uniforms, mean old fathers or grandmothers, protocol, and newspaper headline catastrophes. We were glad the bypassed the, oh you screwed up - breakup routine in favor of an actual story. We'd like to see more stories without the misconstruance by one or both primary actors.

I always cringe when my wife puts on a Hallmark Christmas movie that involves English royalty or a prince or a princess or a countess or a lord or a king or a queen - etc.

There hasn't been a good one since 2014's "A Royal Christmas" with Lacey Chabert and Jane Seymour.

Until now. This was surprisingly different and quite entertaining. Rachel Skarsten is perfect as the nanny of Royalty children - who isn't really a nanny at all. There's a nice blend of mystery, humor, and yuletide cheer here that keeps your attention throughout. The supporting cast is very good, too, particularly Katie Sheridan as the children's princess mother. Plus, there's the added feature of an unrecognizable Greta Scacchi as the owner of a nanny service company. She is delightful in a role that is sort of a nice tribute to the late Angela Lansbury.

Filmed partly in Belgium, the production values and sets are nice to look at, but it's really the little surprises in the story and the fine performances of the entire cast that makes this worthwhile. Well done.

I do like it when Hallmark goes to England, and this was no exception. Rachel Skarsten is good, as usual, and very striking looking with her hair up. Her English accent was a little distracting, but that was a me problem as she has the accent credentials once playing Elizabeth Tudor in the popular series Reign. But I digress.

This had elements of a typical Nannyfish out of water taking care of precocious Royal Children and falling for the Prince. But this usual template is rescued from dreary business-as-usual by the fact that this was also part MI5 spy story. Agent Rachel helps uncover a plot against the Royal Family and the military intelligence department sends her to protect the family disguised as the new nanny. She is partnered by Tousaint Meghie as Wallace, the new chauffeur. She goes through a whirlwind training by the Nanny Whisperer, Greta Scacchi, who has aged gracefully and settled into character parts very comfortably, thank you very much. Her specialty is weaponizing the ever-present Nanny umbrella. Once she is installed, highjinks ensue with the kids trying to prank her. She is not MI5 for nothing however, and their amateur efforts are nipped in the bud quite resoundingly with the bucket of spaghetti landing on their co-conspirator, Uncle Colin (the love interest). She wins the kids over by not ratting them out to their mother, the Princess, and even indulging in a prank of her own. Of course, we have the obligatory invitation to the Royal Ball and the jaw-dropping entrance. She wins Colin over when he sees her with her hair freed from her tight bun and in a feminine red ball dress. But also by jumping in to help with his charity coincidentally benefitting her old orphanage. The enemies attack as they are exiting and Rachel saves the kids with some ninja umbrella action, but Colin gets kidnapped.

The romance was lame with little chemistry between the two lovebirds and really had no future despite the kiss at the end. The spy part was adequate. I suspected one character, who turned out to be guilty of something, but not of the main threat of harming the children. When Colin gets kidnapped, Rachel's boss tries to fire her but the princess stands up for her and throws the male spooks out on their ear. Yay! The main bad guy and the motive will be no surprise to anyone with even a passing interest in British mystery and international intrigue stories, but that was totally OK.