A Royal in Paradise

I was a little skeptical at first, but the movie was really good. It was predictable, but funny and entertaining. Rhiannon Fish did a wonderful job in the movie. She was sad, funny, and her face expressions were wonderful. Probably the best thing I've seen her in. She's quickly becoming one of my favorite actresses.

Naomi Sequeira was beautiful and charming as ever. Mitchell Bourke was great as the prince. The rest of the cast did a great job.

The scenery was incredible. I've been to this part of Australia and they did it proud in the movie.

Overall fun, wholesome, great views and would see it again.

Two Australians - Rhiannon Fish as Olivia and Mitchell Bourke as Alexander - star in a film shot in Queensland, Australia for GAC Family.

A Royal in Paradise tells the story of Olivia, a best-selling writer who goes through a breakup whilst struggling for inspiration for her next novel. When Olivia's friend suggests they take the trip Olivia had originally planned to take with her boyfriend, she meets Alexander of Toravia (yet another country where they sound English!), who is on the island for a fundraising benefit, and to get away from the constraints of royal life. If you've seen one of these, you've seen them all...and you wouldn't be at all surprised to learn that sparks fly between the two, and that's where complications set in. All with a tropical backdrop, and all very family-friendly. (Except, if you happen to pay very close attention to the stock footage scenes of people in the pool, as I apparently did. Some of them are wearing thong bikinis! And Olivia does show off a fairly impressive bit of cleavage on a few occasions.)

Fish and Bourke have good chemistry, and their scenes together are all very nice. A predictable plot doesn't mean this wasn't an enjoyable film. What makes it enjoyable is their chemistry.

Your typical commoner girl (this time a writer with writer's block) recently dumped and a "typical" prince who happen to meet on this beautiful marine preserve and the rest is predictable. This movie has a slightly different bent in which the reveal happens earlier than usual and the resulting dilemma takes more time to resolve while the writer is confronted with more of a intellectual problem than usual. The scenery is gorgeous, and the pacing is competently presented. For those interested in the by now well-used rom-com story with a little more bite, this movie has all elements that romantics have come to expect and a tad bit more.

8.0 stars.

My review will be influenced primarily by a woman surnamed Fish. I love everything she does, she has the Midas touch. I've yet to watch any performance by her that leaves me cold or disappointed. Once again, we have a title debacle. What is the real title of this film? Who cares, I'm not going to make a big deal of it.

The writing is straight out of Hallmark's playbook. This might as well be a Hallmark. Heck, it probably is, but maybe they decided to give another channel a go at the whole royal-meets-commoner trope. Bad move guys, because this is one of the better royal romances of the dozens I've seen. I'd say this places i my top five thus far. I won't bore you with the plot, but just lay out the basic blueprint of this royal installment vs all others, and see where it lands in the grand scheme of royalty.

First: instead of the usual setting of a big city in America (even though it begins there), we end up on an island paradise. Is this in the Caribbean, is this a real island? I never researched it. But it looks like something south of, or near the equator.

Second: the prince opts to hide his identity from the commoner.

Third: the commoner is a successful writer, dating guru, or owner of a thriving business.

Fourth: the royal has an "evil" king or queen who is barking orders and having someone spy on them to be sure they aren't galavanting with an uncivilized American.

Fifth: the royal's assistant is part of the plot and ends up escorting, or dating the American love interest's best friend. And there is someone named Winston, whether an assistant, a butler, or bodyguard.

Sixth: the king or queen is also dating a lower level citizen in secret.

Seventh: when the identity of the royal is revealed, the other person gets very angry and breaks off the friendship because they were "misled" or "lied to", and they exclaim in great disappointment: "I trusted you". What was very refreshing in this particular instance, she is pragmatic and understands the situation and the pressures, and holds no grudge for his deceit.

Eighth: the king or queen persuades the commoner to break up with the royal, because the relationship would cheat said royal out of his/her rightful lot in life.

They could have mixed this up a bit, instead of him learning her identity as a famous author, keep that little secret from him for another 20 minutes, so both of them are masquerading. That would have been very interesting, maybe she finds out he's a prince and he discovers she's an author and they both keep it a secret, pretending all the while that they are still in the dark. Maybe incorporate quips, and comments, and puns and then the reveal and we all have a blast. They both knew that they knew, it could be funny for a moment.

This is not a Hallmark movie but it closely follows the typical Hallmark story arc. Two single people meet and are attracted to each other, something comes between them, later they overcome it and during the last minute they have their first kiss.

Cute and authentic Rhiannon Fish (about 30) plays romance novelist Olivia. Based in Manhattan, she is riding the wave of popularity of her latest book but seems stuck, full-on writer's block. She buys tickets for her and her fiance' to travel to a tropical island but at the same time he has started to break up with her. So her good friends convinces her the two of them should go together instead, Olivia can use the trip as an inspiration for her writing.

At the same time Alexander, a prince from a small (fictitious) country, is reading her novel. They meet accidentally, then later they both end up at the same tropical island, she on vacation and he on a charity trip to help raise money for conservation. They meet again, they hit it off, but Alexander's mother, the Queen, has other plans and tries to sabotage the relationship.

The movie plays better than a brief description can explain, it is interesting and entertaining all the way through. A good effort for this type of movie, a fluff piece with beautiful people and great scenery.

My wife and I watched it on FreeVee, streaming on Prime.