Lord, I love tropes. I love all of the tropes. If you looked me up in the dictionary, it would say ‘trope lover’ next to my picture. A Not So Royal Christmas is definitely filled with a lot of tropes and that I love.
A tabloid journalist? Fake royalty? Secrets. Lies. Drama. A country that I think that is made up, but I am so confused by. Yes, I am here for all of this.
Does that mean that I loved A Not So Royal Christmas? No. But I didn’t hate it. I think that in Hallmarks evolution, they are moving forward and I appreciate it so much. I think though that there is a lot that they are trying to squeeze in and it’s just feeling like it’s too much in a short period of time.
It doesn’t mean that these Countdown to Christmas movies are bad. It’s just a lot to fit in, in the short amount of time that they have to tell the entire story. It feels a little like whiplash as we try to figure out what is going on, why it’s going on, and how things can change.
A Not So Royal Christmas was witty and moved fast, but like I said that felt like too much too in one movie.
WHAT IT’S ABOUT: After receiving an assignment, London-based tabloid journalist Charlotte (D’Orsay) heads to Nordin, Scandinavia, to secure an interview with the extremely reclusive Lars Ludwig Von Taylor, the Count of Sorhagen. With an ‘in’ into the palace, Charlotte encounters palace landscaper Adam (Kemp), whom she mistakes for the Count and requests an interview. The encounter is witnessed by a member of the Royal Advisory Council, who decides to grant the interview with Adam posing as the Count. After giving Charlotte a behind-the-scenes look at the organization of the annual festive Yuletide Ball, Adam raises a few royal eyebrows when, as Count Lars, he attempts to break centuries-old traditions. Things only get more complicated when a photo of the ‘Count’ is leaked to the press, which could royally derail his ruse and shatter any bond the two have formed.
WHAT IT’S GIVING: Royal Lies
STANDOUT PERFORMANCE: Roy Lewis as the Counts main man. Boy can that man keep a secret and boy is he scary.
GRINCH-ISH THOUGHTS: There is nothing about me that doesn’t understand the want to do well, to have a great job, and to be amazing. There is nothing about me that doesn’t understand the want to be better all of the time. But at certain points in ones life, we all do things that we may not love in order to move ahead.
Charlotte didn’t want to be a tabloid journalist, but here she is. Working for the Royal news equivalent of the National Inquirer isn’t where she wants to do, but she needs a Visa and she needs an income. But when she asks for a raise and her boss (as sleezy as they come) says no.
But they make a deal – if she gets an interview with a reclusive Count, who no one has seen in years – she’ll get a raise.
So she sets off to some country who apparently has the older Christmas lights in Europe. She’s going to figure out how to get the interview, no matter what. But that means lying about who she works for. She wants credibility, but she won’t get it where she works at.
Enter Adam, a guy who is lost and is just home for the holidays. Apparently access to the castle is super easy, because he saunter in to return a medallion that he had found. Charlotte catches him and mistakes him for the Count. He goes with it and she finds a way to make sure she gets what she wants too.
Since there hasn’t been a picture of him for years, she snaps one and says that she’ll release it if she doesn’t get an interview.
I am having a hard time understanding why it is that Sorhagen (this country that they are all in) doesn’t even know how to Google Charlotte to see that she’s not who she says that she is. It feels like it’s an obvious thing that they could have done. But they don’t do that. Instead, they give in to Charlotte and give her the interview that she wants.
Adam and Charlotte start spending a lot of time together. He’s faking to the be the Count and she’s faking who she is. The two are starting to bond and pushing each other to be better people. Adam is also setting the monarchy on its side, by suggesting that they do a lot of things that they aren’t used to.
But that’s the beauty of the movie. That you have to take a moment to stop and think about the community that you are in. You have to take a moment to support them and see the beauty of what they can do. There are people in the immediate vicinity that can do amazing things and you need to tap into the world around you.
If you don’t stop to see that traditions can be changed because time evolves, you need to evolve with it. Adam wants to embrace the community and Charlotte is pushing him to do that. The monarchy doesn’t want to listen, but he’s not willing to back down.
And once he finds a way to push that – he does. There are more royal lies and more royal drama.
Charlotte and Adam both find out each others lies and take it to an extreme. What I don’t get is the way that the monarchy was willing to pass Adam off as the Count and didn’t think twice about it, as if the real Count wouldn’t come out of nowhere. It was as if all these things that could happen weren’t thought of and yet, we just kept getting presented with the same plot hole after plot hole.
But, it was just a lot, one thing after another. It felt like a lot in one movie and honestly, I just felt overwhelmed. It was a disappointment.
CHRISTMAS CHEER: 🎄.5