Once Upon a Prince

These "I fancy an actual prince" themed Hallmark films are never my favourite, but this is actually nicely done, with two good performances from the leads.

Well worth a watch.

Another prince movie! So many of the plot points seem similar to the last prince movie I saw, right down to the queen doing everything she could to embarrass the usurper American. And once again the climax is a royal ball. And several other similarities. Are these movies written using a template?

The positives of this movie are Megan Park and Jonathan Keltz. They make an extremely cute couple. Megan Park does an excellent job as sweet and humble girl. She struggles with the insecurities of her relatively humble position in the world of royalty, yet somehow she doesn't lose her inner confidence and identity. Jonathan Keltz is commanding and confident. I can totally believe him as prince and king. He refuses to cave in to pressure. Sara Botsford as the Queen is intimidating but not cruel, nor is the rival Ginny. All in all, despite the fact that the story is cookie cutter, I found it to be executed in much better fashion.

Perhaps the last scene stands out as well.

Was very mixed on the 2018 Spring Fever films. There were a couple of pleasant surprises, such as 'Royal Matchmaker'. There were also a couple of duds, such as 'Home by Spring'. My expectations for 'Once Upon a Prince' to be honest were not exactly high, despite the chance to see a cast that didn't have any of the Hallmark regular actors royalty and romance have been proven too many times to not work and it was a premise that felt tired long before this was made.

'Once Upon a Prince' turned out to be a pleasant surprise. Not one of the very best 2018 Hallmark films, or their films overall, and not much new is done with this well worn premise. It is though is one of the better 2018 Spring Fever films and proves that romance and royalty in Hallmark can work with the right execution. That it didn't have any of the regular Hallmark actors (i.e. Lacey Chabert, Danica McKellar, Andrew Walker, Tyler Hynes, like most by the way) proved to be a plus too.

It isn't perfect. It does not admittedly have any surprises and follows the formula by the letter (while doing it better than most Hallmark romance/royalty films). Did feel too that some decisions were made too quickly, such as the decision to marry made just like that without a second's thought, and motivations rushed through a bit.

Did find some of the character writing too much on the one dimensional side (Jonathan Keltz's character veering on being a little too perfect), like there could have been more of why the queen domineered that much and what made her change her mind so easily perhaps.

However, despite how that sounds, 'Once Upon a Prince' does a lot of things well. Keltz was confident, without being overly so, and charming, very at home as a royal character. Megan Park looks radiant and also has an easy going charm without coming over as affected. They are incredibly cute together and are genuine as a coupling, appreciated too that the relationship wasn't rushed and took time to grow without taking too long. The supporting cast may have very cliched characters, but fill them well. Sara Botsford does domineering and regal very convincingly, without overdoing too much.

Furthermore, 'Once Upon a Prince' looks very nice especially the locations, and the music is not drab or intrusive. The film is directed with assurance, though never anything that goes wow. The script is not too cheesy (though there are some admittedly in the early stages of the film) or sugary and it at least flows, and while the story is predictable and not perfectly paced it's light hearted and charming with nothing that can be seen as offensive.

Overall, nice film and worth watching if not a must. 7/10.

The story is pretty much what you would expect.

What does set this apart is the fact that the movie avoids all the most of the cringeworthy moments of other movies in the genre.

The Queen and the long time girlfriend don't descend into hyperbole very often, the prince himself isn't a complete moron, and no one overdoes the royal pantomime too much.

Add in some slightly above average one liners, a better quality cast than normal (most of them seem to have some meatier roles on their resume) and a bit of chemistry between the leads, and you have a solid 8 from me.

It is complete trash, but it is high quality complete trash.

On a Georgian island, Susanna Truitt (Megan Park) works at her parents' gardening store. She has a bad day. Instead of a marriage proposal from long-time boyfriend Adam, he dumps her. She expected a life including starting her landscape architecture business with him. She gets a flat tire but then dashing Nate comes to her rescue. When her father is hospitalized, he volunteers to help out at the store. He gets her a landscape design job for the high class Mrs. Waller. What she doesn't know is that he's a real prince of Cambria and a photographer catches them together. The Queen is unhappy and orders him home.

Megan Park is cute. The prince is cute. It's not the most daring of coupling but they are cute. It's cute. Royalty in one of these TV romance movies often struggles for scale. That's the case here. The castle is not much of a castle. The royal grandeur is not that grand. There are a couple of nice gardens but that's the limits of the production. The story has limited drama. It's a cute Hallmark movie but it's not that much.