Movie Review :: Hallmark Channel’s A Royal Montana Christmas

Hallmark Channel

In the space of a week, Hallmark Channel has transitioned from Halloween to Christmas, so ready or not, it is officially ‘Countdown to Christmas’ season, and we’ll do our best to keep up with the two new movies every weekend between now and the big day.

The channel kicks things off with A Royal Montana Christmas, starring Fiona Gubelmann and Warren Christie (his second Hallmark movie in three weeks following Home Turf). The story centers around Gubelmann’s Princess Victoria — she has a much, much longer title — who is next in line to succeed her mother, Grand Duchess Charlotte, as the ruler of Zelarnia. When Victoria was a young girl, her father Olivier had taken her to Peaceful Pines Ranch in Montana to give her a Christmas experience she’d always remember, and as the pressure of assuming her new title mount, Victoria asks her mother’s permission to visit the ranch once again just to decompress. Charlotte allows the trip since Victoria’s younger sister Emma is more than capable of filling in — and is truly more interested in taking the position than Victoria — so off Victoria goes with her assistant Gabriel in tow. Arriving in Montana, the first thing Victoria does is run over a box of Christmas ornaments local ‘cowboy’ Huntley was using to decorate the town (to be fair, he did leave them in the street where cars would be parking), and later when Victoria and Gabriel check in at the ranch, she soon learns that Huntley is also the ‘porter’ who brings their luggage to their rooms. Awkward. Turns out Huntley is the son of the ranch owners, Jimmy and Nadie Blaylock, and he’s just there to help for the holidays, a special time for the ranch and the locals, a time filled with holiday activities. It’s not long before Victoria and Huntley feel a tiny bit of a spark between them, but Victoria has not yet revealed to him that she is indeed a princess. As their feelings grow — and are quite obvious to everyone else because no one has seen Huntley smile that much in a very long time — Victoria is conflicted because she really likes Huntley but she has to return home soon. Things become even more complicated as Victoria learns that the annual Holly Days Dance she remembered so fondly has not been held in years — and there is a complicated reason to that which lays squarely on Huntley’s shoulders — and when a fundraiser for the local volunteer fire department is falling short, Victoria suggests reviving the dance as a charity event, and she will spearhead it — even though the chosen date is the day she is to return home, but mother grants her an extension. It takes a minute for Huntley to agree, but the whole event only makes the sparks between him and Victoria grow. But her time has come to leave and she finally admits to Huntley who she really is, and she also learns the horse she’s been helping with is the offspring of the horse she loved as a child, one a young boy introduced her to. Then it clicks — Huntley was that boy, and he remembers Victoria was that girl, always hoping that she would return. And now here she is but … now she has to leave, again. They finally share a passionate kiss, but the next day Victoria leaves without so much as a goodbye because she doesn’t want a goodbye to be their last memory. With two hearts broken, will the spirit of the holidays be able to bring them back together?

Hallmark is starting the holiday season with a mildly entertaining romance, but A Royal Montana Christmas lacks some of that spark that the better romantic movies have. It’s hard to put a finger on what exactly is missing because it has everything you’d expect — a slow burn romance between people from different world, complications that threaten to separate them, a charming group of supporting characters, a lovely location, some laughs, some tears … but somehow it still ends up feeling a bit empty. The script by Mark Famiglietti and Michael Testa certainly follows the template, but perhaps that is the issue — it’s all a bit too familiar, particularly after the series of ‘Royal Weekend’ movies the network rolled out back in March. All three of those movies had a similar structure with a royal and a commoner finding their worlds clashing even as their hearts were joining. Hallmark movies generally feel familiar but comfortable, and that can be attributed to clever writing and the chemistry of the leads but that all just feels a bit lacking. Besides one really emotional moment between Victoria and Huntley, there is one other heart-melting moment at the dance where Victoria decides they need a King and Queen, similar to the Homecoming King and Queen she’s heard about, and she helps creates a lovely childhood memory for another young girl. For his part, director Peter Benson does make use of the spectacular Vancouver location, even giving us some actual snow instead of that too-obviously-fake Hallmark snow we so often see. (I do have to note that the shots of the town surrounded by the mountains looks remarkably similar to the shots of the town surrounded by mountain in Resident Alien.)

Hallmark Channel

Speaking of that chemistry, Gubelmann and Christie get along well enough, but their story is such a slow burn it’s hard to feel that romantic connection. Gubelmann’s Victoria is so into being at the ranch and reliving her childhood memories that she just seems to be passively flirting with Huntley. The story takes too long to get to her revealing the truth of her identity, as well as taking too long for the both of them to realize they knew each other as children. If that had come sooner, the romance could have been much stronger between them, making her decision to leave all the more painful, and the eventual reunion all the more joyful and emotional. Gubelmann’s performance is charming though, and her excitement about organizing the dance is palpable. She does manage to wring a few tears from our eyes as she makes the decision to leave, but in the end her performance is hampered by the script. Christie also falls victim to the writing as he is a man who has a past — he was a baseball player who suffered an injury which forced him to go into coaching, and the injury was why the dance ended, something he carries a lot of guilt about — but he never wants to talk about it, not with Victoria, not with his father, not with anyone. And those who do know the story also won’t tell Victoria because it’s his story to tell. So this gets a bit frustrating and forces Christie to really hold back in his performance, the character forced to put up walls which makes him come off as a bit stand-offish toward Victoria. He does get a moment that does pack a major punch when he and Victoria finally kiss and he believes it may be the last time, tears streaming down his cheeks. That was the most truly heartfelt moment in the entire movie, but it comes just a little too late in the story for the audience to finally engage with Huntley. Both of their performances are fine, but even they can’t seem to make the necessary magic from the script they’ve been given.

One of the stand-outs of the cast is David Kaye as Gabriel, actually an American who somehow became Victoria’s assistant. He gets all of the movie’s funniest bits and lines, and he has wonderful comic timing, delivering a one-liner or a humorous reaction with great skill. The movie could have used a lot more of him (and it would have been nice if he’d gotten a little romantic side plot that other movies have granted their supporting characters). Eric Keenleyside is also terrific as Huntley’s father Jimmy the jovial ‘cow boss’, as he insists on being addressed, happily running the ranch but hoping to turn it all over to his son if he can get Huntley out of his own head, trying to break down the wall of guilt and sense of failure Huntley has built around himself. Lynda Boyd is also very good as mom Nadie, always a bundle of energy around the ranch, but also projecting Nadie’s weariness without actually saying anything or showing that she’s tired from all the work and is looking forward to a break. She’s always doing something and you just want to tell her to sit down and take a breath, but that’s what comes with running a family business. Both she and Keenleyside make their characters feel truly authentic. The other actors all give wonderful performances and no one feels like they’re acting, and as the story goes on they all make you want to visit Peaceful Pines Ranch yourself. If nothing else, that’s what these Hallmark movies do best — they create a world that is perhaps more idealistic than reality, but it’s a world you want to be a part of. Even if the romance lacks, that escapist fantasy always draws you in. Who doesn’t need a little escapism once in a while. On that count, A Royal Montana Christmas really does deliver.

A Royal Montana Christmas has a run time of 1 hour 23 minutes, and is rated TV-G. The film is streaming on Hallmark+.

Preview – A Royal Montana Christmas

Hallmark Channel