‘A Christmas Prince’ is a Christmas set rom-com the plot revolves around journalist Amber, (Rose Mciver), as she is sent to the fictional country of Aldovia to cover the coronation of the new King, Prince Richard. While there she starts posing as the princesses nanny, all in the hopes of finding some juicy gossip, but in a rather predictable turn, she starts to develop strong feelings for the King to be.
The romance is wholesome and, sweet yet exactly what you would expect; they grow more fond of each other, then it is revealed that Amber isn’t who she says she is and, finally there is a big romantic gesture at the end, all very formulaic and, as you would expect. These Christmas Prince films almost feel more like a made for TV sort of films and, that is more than half the charm. The plot is laughably predictable, the set and, costume design all look very cheap and, the drama almost feels straight out of a reality show, but rather than have these things be a bad thing ‘A Christmas Prince’ is very aware of what it is; it knows it is a trashy made for TV film that most people will watch when they are hungover and, it seems proud of it.
The monarchy of Aldovia seems more than a little inspired by the British monarchy over the years it surprises me to say this but, of Netflix’s two properties that feature a monarchy, the other being the Crown I like this one more. The monarchy of Aldovia can have a laugh at their own expense, treating the whole idea in a very tongue in cheek way.
Rose Mciver does the best she can with a very limited script; her Amber is very down to earth and, likeable and, she makes some great points about monarchies in the modern age. The rest of the performances are all serviceable, nothing to write home about, but they aren’t the worst performances either.
‘A Christmas Prince’ also expertly sets up the wider Netflix shared universe, the most unknown of the shared universes, which features the likes of ‘The Princess Switch’ and, to a lesser degree ‘The Knight Before Christmas’ as well as the flood of ‘Christmas Prince’ sequels. These films all tie together in a very nice subtle way, even going so far as to point out and become meta, that they are in fact films in ‘The Princess Switch’.
Overall these films are trashy Christmas set rom-coms and, they know that they’re good junk food to watch over the holidays and so I would say by all means check them out.
3.5/5
Reviewed by Luke
Another Millennial Reviewer 