A Royal Christmas Engagement

Really wanted to like this film but the acting is so very bad. There is no connection between any of the actors let alone the leads. As another review said, if you've nothing else to do...find something. No one can give you back the wasted time from watching this.

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.

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.

Just joking. Not the worst, but certainly not the best. Cringiness at its finest. Don't really get why they got engaged in the end when she clearly just saw him as a friend and nothing more. But hey, he's rich so I don't blame her.

Overused storyline made worse by having the lead narrate and give away the ending right at the beginning. It's not like as if anyone watching this don't already know how it's going to end (man gets woman / woman gets man), but the writers for some reason just had to confirm 2 minutes into the movie that we're getting that predictable ending.

There were some passable scenes throughout (when the dialogues were not awful), and the acting was actually ok, but the movie just felt too long at nearly 90 minutes. And some of the secondary characters were redundant and badly written.

This is one Christmas movie you should avoid for 2020. If you're bored and have nothing else to do, please call or facetime someone you haven't spoken to this year, feed your pet or spend that time looking up something better to watch. Do anything else but waste your time with this dud.