A Royal Christmas Crush

'A Royal Christmas Crush' Not the best example of a Hallmark Royal movie. For every 'One Royal Holiday' there is one of these: a run of the mill movie redoing tired old tropes with zero imagination.

Quality over quantity is, I think, a phrase Hallmark needs to abide by more often. Just because you can show 40-odd Christmas movies in October-December and a few more for Christmas in July, doesn't mean you should.

'A Royal Christmas Crush' suffers from poor accents (why does every one of these countries, purported to be somewhere in Europe, seem to speak with a British accent?) and very stereotypical characters, and the key fact that the leads - Katie Cassidy and Stephen Huszar - do not have the necessary chemistry. I must admit that the ice castle setting was cool, but, again, it seems every twelfth Hallmark movie these days is set in one - so the originality is starting to wane.

If you've seen one royal Christmas story ... That's not totally true, but this movie has most of the usual plot threads. There is an iron maiden who dislikes everyone. There is a rival for the prince's hand. Happens to be the daughter who happens to be the iron maiden's (or iron matron's) daughter. There is a skeptical set of royal parents. There is the prince's assistant who like most such characters has been with the family for years and cherishes him like his own son. The thing that threatens the romance between the leads, which I usually call the conflict, was a bit unusual but had the usual result. The ending is mostly predictable but too much over the top in a few ways. The fact that the plot is unrealistic never stops writers of rom/coms especially royal ones. This one goes farther than most.

As you might guess from what I've said so far, I didn't think the story had much in the way of highs or lows. The dialogue was flat. Some of the scenery, including the ice "castle" was interesting. I didn't see much chemistry between Katie Cassidy and Stephen Huszar, but that might have been because Cassidy struck me as too stiff in general.

Hallmark's Christmas in July original movies are either really great (Crashing through the Snow) or major duds, and this one falls squarely in the latter camp. An inane premise (some nondescript Royal Family commissions an ice castle to be built each year for them to spend the holidays), terrible casting (pretty sure the Prince's mom is about the same age as the Prince) and an insipid plot drag this one to the depths of barely watchable. The royal family hardly spends any time in the ice castle. Stephen Huszar's accent comes and goes, and he can't decide if he's supposed to do an English accent or a Nordic accent, so mostly it comes across as a half-hearted attempt at trying to be a snob. A papparrazo wanders around snapping photos at his leisure. Where's security? The only thing this movie had going for it is Katie Cassidy has the prettiest eyes, which apparently won over Huszar because they are now an item.

I don't generally review that often because it's Hallmark, & I mean, you know what you're getting into. This movie was terrible! The plot is chewed up, but fine, whatever. This ice castle is too unique to keep using over & over again, but fine, whatever. But the casting?? Katie Cassidy can barely move her new lips or close her mouth & she used to be wonderful from the days of Gossip Girl & on! Trying to watch her speak dialogue was painful. And if they really wanted Stephen Huzsar to have an accent, they really should've paid for a better dialect coach for him. That accent was half American, a quarter Valley, & 3/4 no one knows. And finally, it's 2023 - the bare minimum you can do is change the date on an iPhone so it doesn't show March 12th, 3:13AM in a text convo that's supposed to take place right before Christmas. There's definitely enough in the production budget for that. The only reason I finished this film is because I'm Type A & needed to cross it off of my Hallmark Movie Checklist. Would never recommend it to anyone.

Okay I know these are Hallmark movies but this one is so far fetched with the ages of the actors it's just absolutely absurd.

The actor playing Prince Henry (Stephen Huszar) must be pushing 40. There's nothing wrong with that except when you have the actress playing his mother, the Queen as being in her 30's. Really the 1 grey streak in her hair does not qualify her to be 60. And they don't even list the actor who plays the King but he looks to be in his early 40s.

The Prince crush story has been done so many times, I have lost count. Boring.

I just can't image there is no one at Hallmark that can come up with a better story or someone else that has to say enough already!!!