Hallmark Channel
One would think that being in the month of March would mean Hallmark Channel would be rolling out a series of Ireland-set romances, but perhaps with a Christmas movie and one other Irish romance already this year, the network has decided to grace us with ‘Royal Weekends’ movies for three Saturdays beginning with The Royal We.
The Royal We stars Mallory Jansen as Bostonian Bea, a young woman who works for a company that specializes in team building projects for various organizations, assisted by her bestie Chloe (Rae Lim). Over in Europe, two royal families are about to celebrate the (pre-arranged) nuptials of Crown Prince Desmond and Princess Coralina, in an effort to finally settle a territorial dispute between their countries. But the princess flees with … a plumber (!) putting the arrangement in danger. Luckily she has a sister — Princess Beatrix — and Bea begins getting a series of calls from a foreign number, which Chloe thinks is a scammer. Try as she might, Bea can’t hide from her father’s henchmen and she agrees to go with them as long as Chloe can come too. It’s not long before she is introduced to the prince (surprising Chloe with her various accents), and she knows it’s her duty to honor the agreement and marry him. But before they jet off, Bea introduces Demond to the joys of being incognito in public, sneaking off for pizza and a few games of bowling.
Returning to their homelands, the marriage plans escalate quickly, but a peaceful dinner with the two families becomes a diplomatic nightmare that Bea thinks she can fix with the help of Chloe using their team building skills. It actually works and the two kingdoms manage to come to an agreement that will not force the prince and princess to marry. But can Bea and Desmond, who endured some extraordinary circumstances in such a short time, actually forget each other just like that?
Hallmark Channel has done it again with a thoroughly charming romantic comedy-drama. The network just has some magical ability to make something that could be tiresomely routine into something utterly entertaining, making the viewer fall in love with the characters just as they are falling in love (and, honestly, we love them as a couple even before they finally feel the heartstrings being plucked). Part of that magic comes from the writing, in this case by C. Jay Cox from a story by Anne Black and Clare Niederpruem, which balances the comedic aspects of the story with some drama (but not much), and actually making us wonder if the royals will actually try to make a go of it. There is obviously an attraction between the two, but is it just because of the heightened circumstances or are there real feelings (having Bea actually remember Desmond’s love of astronomy as a plot point goes a long way to showing us there has to be some spark between them). The bickering between the two kings is also quite funny, even though their situation is quite serious. The characters of Chloe, the king’s right hand Edwin, and plumber Cody are great support, with actor Simon Kunz doing his best John Gielgud from Arthur as he deals with the two young royals constantly flaunting protocols. Cox even manages to make Princess Coralina warm and likable, where she could have been a stuck up ‘better than you’ character. It all just works so well, and director Clare Niederpruem guides the story with grace, warmth and humor.
Hallmark Channel
Where Hallmark also always nearly succeeds is in its casting, and this time they have hit it out of the park. Mallory Jansen is perfection as Bea. The native Australian perfectly nails the American accent Bea has put on to pass through society, and easily slips into a British accent once the ruse is done and she can be Beatrix again. She even throws in some French, which sounded fine to me but not the French-speaker in the household. C’est la vie. In both her ‘commoner’ and royal personae, Jansen manages to make the princess completely down-to-earth, knowing her duties as princess come first but still wanting to just be an average, everyday person without the fates of two countries on her shoulders. She is totally charming.
Charlie Carrick knows a thing or two about playing a royal with past roles in The Borgias and Reign. The British actor doesn’t have to switch up his accent, but he is also a complete charmer especially in his moments out on the town with Bea in Boston, letting down his guard with none of his royal detail surrounding them. He’s also never made to pressure Bea into fulfilling her duty, completely understanding her situation and putting any of her concerns to rest that he just got stuck with the leftover princess. Carrick and Jansen have wonderful chemistry on screen, and the two manage to make it a bit heartbreaking after things are settled and they no longer have to be married … even if we know they have to run back into each others’ arms right before the credits roll.
Rae Lim really shines as Chloe, bringing a sort of Awkwafina type of energy to her role as Bea’s friend and sidekick. It was very smart to have Chloe come along to support Bea and Lim manages to steal the spotlight with ease just about every time she’s on screen. As mentioned, Simon Kunz is wonderful as the man who has to keep the royals on track, allowing their inexperience to play out while carefully and calmly guiding them through the motions. Michael Howe and Simon Shackleton toss off their insult comedy one-liners with ease, Nicola Posener is sweet as Coralina, and Adam Woodward gets a few laughs as Cody, happy to meet Chloe and have another commoner among the group. Carolyn Backhouse and Jacinta Mulcahy don’t get a lot to do as the queens, but each of them have their moments to offer common sense to their husbands and children. All in all, The Royal We is cast to perfection with actors the audience can relate to, even the royals.
The Royal We could have been just a routine romance with a group of people the viewer doesn’t care about, but it works better than it ought to. And pay attention as Bea and Desmond begin planning their real nuptials at the end as the movie is actually setting up an entire ‘Royal Weekends’ Cinematic Universe, referencing and naming characters from the two movies yet to come, placing them all in the same social circle. Not sure if Hallmark has ever done this before but it was a cool touch … however, it might have made more sense had The Royal We been the last movie of the group so we already knew the characters from the other movies (as it is, you need to watch the previews for The Reluctant Royal and Royal-ish to get the references. But still, The Royal We is absolutely worth the watch.
The Royal We has a run time of 1 hour 24 minutes, and is rated TV-G. The film is streaming on Hallmark+.
Preview – The Royal We
Hallmark Channel