A Winter Princess

Expectations were not high for 'A Winter Princess'. While having little problem with Chris McNally, Natalie Hall is more take and leave to me in other roles and the premise had been done to death with variable success already with Hallmark. 'A Winter Princess' was still watched though, because it did sound cute and Hallmark have proven that they can do halfway decent and more films. Despite their 2019 output being patchy and that is including the Winterfest films from that year.

'A Winter Princess' is one of the 2019 Winterfest films and is neither one of the best or worst of them. It is also not among the best or worst Hallmark films from that year, again a middling effort if anything. 'A Winter Princess' certainly has its good things and moments and is not a terrible film by any stretch (or at least to me), but there is also nothing special really about it either and it does very little new with a well worn formula that was already creaking with age.

There are things that 'A Winter Princess' does well. The scenery is absolutely beautiful and well complemented by the photography, that is not static or tries to do too much. Did like too the choices of music, having waltz-like music in parts was a good move and fitted with the concept very well. The middle has some genuinely light hearted and sweet without being too sugary moments.

McNally has an easy going charm and natural charisma, am aware about having said this quite a lot recently but there have been many instances where those two aspects have applied to certain performances in Hallmark films and McNally is one of them. Once she relaxes, Hall is also charming and easy to like. Their chemistry was definitely there and it felt light-hearted and genuine. There are things done differently which was appreciated, including not having the prince incognito.

However, there are shortcomings. Despite some things done differently, the formula is not a fresh one and generally 'A Winter Princess' has a complete lack of originality. The predictability factor is very high here. Also found the early portions hard to sit through, which came over as very cheesy and dull and Hall's acting came over as affected and not particularly relaxed. Good thing that the film did get better, but the final quarter is contrived and on the too convenient side.

Furthermore, the supporting cast weren't particularly good. Especially the king, who was performed in a going through the motions way. The accents agreed are not good, where one can tell that the accents that are attempted by some are not real. The script tends to be very cheesy and stilted and while the characters are not unlikeable there is not much meat to them at the same time.

Summarising, watchable but nothing out of the ordinary. 5/10.

Reading the description that she's a princess from a small European country made me worried Carly would have an annoying fake accent and I was surprised she didn't play into this and it's even explained why she doesn't have an accent. The characters all worked well together for the story. I was slightly bored as we neared the end of the movie wanting it to just wrap up already. It's obvious where the movie was going and I just wanted it to end! I enjoyed the outdoor scenes and wanted to see more of the resort town. There weren't too many side stories which I appreciated, kept the story simple and straight forward. It was nice to see a princess story rather than all the princes coming to America and working at a summer job. I don't recall they explained why she came to this particular resort in the first place? Maybe I missed it.

Carly is ready to go back to her family but her ski resort boss convinces her to stay to plan for the big winter ball. She is partnered with the owner's brother Jesse. Only Carly has been working incognito. She's actually Princess Carlotta from Landora and her twin brother Prince Gustav has arrived for a fundraiser gala.

For a premise like this, her secret needs to come with stakes. There's no real stakes. She faces no danger from being revealed. The plot is left with limited tension mostly around the fate of the event but even there, it's not like the resort is threatened. The leads are beautiful although they're not the most powerful actors. This is low intensity Hallmark and good for background watch. One can leave the TV on the background while you do something else.

Patchy enough but performance of female lead carried it through and made it enjoyable. The male lead was unconvincing and felt like his romantic interest came to light when it was revealed Carlie was royalty.

An enjoyable movie, the main casting was well fitted to each other. The views and back drop through out the movie was really nice. I really liked the fact that the snow was actual snow and not the fake foam snow that is so easy to detect.