Hallmark Channel
Hallmark Channel concludes its ‘Royal Weekends’ themed movies, and after two wonderful outings, this third movie just slightly misses the mark.
Royal-ish centers around the royal family of the fictional country of Bella Moritz, where Queen Eloise is considering abdicating the throne to her son, Prince Henry. Unfortunately, the Prince seems to have little interest in taking on the role, not because he doesn’t want to be king, but because he’s disinterested in all of the rules and regulations the royals are to follow, mostly set forth by his mum. He also has a nine-year-old daughter, Princess Rose, who is expected to ride a horse in a traditional ceremony, but after suffering a fall from her horse she is terrified to get back on. To help distract her, Henry brings Rose to an American amusement park in Virginia that features a Once Upon a Time Land, where various fairy tale characters are brought to life by the employees. One event of their two-day trip is a Princess Tea Party with Prince Sweetpea (based on The Princess and the Pea), and the two princesses make a quick connection. Meanwhile the park Prince is late and Princess Sweetpea needs a waltz partner so Rose volunteers her dad, who may know a thing or two about waltzing. Rose is so taken with the ‘Princess’ that Henry makes a special request that she be their guide through the park on their second day, but she must always remain in character as the park’s owner forbids the actors to blur the lines between their real-life identities and their characters (and this seems to be based on an incident involving a Disney ‘cast member’ who posted photos of themselves in costume on their personal Instagram account).
Upon their return home, Henry reveals to his mother that the park princess is coming to Bella Moritz — the next day — to help Rose build up her confidence as she has not connected with anyone else as well as she has with the princess, whose real name is Lacey, since her mother died. The Queen is less than thrilled but she makes Henry a deal — if Rose shows any improvement in her confidence and actually gets on that horse for the ceremony, she will allow her to return to her boarding school to continue her education, but if not she will remain at the palace for tutoring like all of the royals. Henry wants Rose to experience her education around others so he agrees to the deal. Lacey arrives — her boss let her go on the condition that she is only ever Lacey and not Princess Sweetpea — and has a time finding her way around the castle, but her presence at Rose’s first attempt at getting reacquainted with her horse goes well, mainly because Lacey suggests Rose try a smaller horse than the one she usually rides. Rose agrees to mount the horse, and feeling comfortable even suggests going for a ride around the stable yard as long as Lacey leads the horse. Henry also begins to develop feelings for Lacey and is taken with her suggestions about opening up the palace to the locals and other things that would make the royal family feel more integrated into the community — something the Queen has always been a firm no on. But things take a turn when a photo of Henry and Princess Sweetpea hits the media, putting the royals in a bad light and exposing Lacey’s real name, leading to her dismissal from her job. After the Queen’s right hand man Lionel suggests that Lacey should put aside any notions she has of a fairy tale ending to her story with the Prince — not that she had any — and return home, she does just that without saying goodbye, leaving both Henry and Rose heartbroken, while the Queen actually encourages him to return to America to get her because she has seen the progress Rose has made. But can Henry get back across the pond and convince Lacey to return, or will her refusal to take his calls send the message that she’s abdicated her role as princess?
Hallmark Channel
Royal-ish certainly has oodles of charm, especially with the depiction of the relationship not between Henry and Lacey but between Rose and Lacey. As portrayed by Nichole Sakura, Lacey is more than just a companion to Rose, she does fill the role of the missing mother. Sakura works so well with young Francesca Europa that you can’t help but get invested in their storyline, from riding the carousel at the amusement park to their tea party on the grounds of the castle. Her chemistry with William Moseley (Prince Henry) is fine but for most of the movie they just seem like friends (and we can’t forget the fact that Lacey is basically in Henry’s employ at this point despite his obvious feelings for her). It’s a Hallmark movie so we know there has to be a romance (and there is a hint of another one that comes out of left field near the end of the movie with Henry’s security guy and Lacey’s roommate who plays Little Red Riding Hood at the park) but it feels a little forced since Henry isn’t shown spending that much time with Lacey. All three of the actors do fine jobs with their characters, it’s just that the story doesn’t give them much spark. Eloise Swain is appropriately regal as the Queen — though not too overbearing, and Sophia Adli is really down-to-earth as Lacey’s best friend Ava.
As with the other ‘Royal Weekend’ movies, this one was also filmed in Ireland and it makes great use of the castle location and the rolling green hills that surround it. The amusement park seems a little janky though and the princess’ tea room borders on ‘Willy Wonka Experience’ cheapness. But the most egregious thing about Royal-ish is there is not a single mention of any of the characters from The Royal We and The Reluctant Royal. This whole themed series was set up has having interconnected characters, and the first two movies did make mention of them. Since they all filmed in Ireland, and there were going to be royal weddings in the first two movies, all of the main characters should have gathered together at the end for one of the events. This is such a disappointing missed opportunity, and if it wasn’t going to be possible to have all the characters assemble as a sort of Royal Avengers, then they shouldn’t have made the attempt to connect the films at all. Such a letdown.
As it stands — and this one can certainly stand alone — Royal-ish is a pleasant diversion with a more important ‘mother’-daughter relationship at its core than a romantic one between the two leads. It just lacks a spark to keep it on par with the other two ‘Royal Weekends’ movies.
Royal-ish has a run time of 1 hour 24 minutes, and is rated TV-G. The film is streaming on Hallmark+.
Preview – Royal-ish
Hallmark Channel