“A Christmas Prince” Trilogy Movie Review: One is Just Not Enough
By: Mara Winters
Netflix describes their original Christmas movie, “A Christmas Prince” as charming, feel-good, and romantic, but those three words do not do this film series justice. “A Christmas Prince” is not only inspiring and heartwarming, but it fills the viewer with Christmas spirit and a hopeful heart, leaving you wanting more after each movie. So during this Christmas season, I cannot recommend this soon-to-be classic enough.
Many Decembers ago I woke up early on a Sunday morning to terrible stomach pains. Much to my surprise, I had started my period. My parents let me skip church due to my immense amount of pain, so I sat on the couch alone and scrolled into the Hallmark channel to watch some sappy romance movie that, to my amazement, took all my pain away and left me filled with bliss. Since that moment I have been on a search for that same feeling, trying to find The Perfect Christmas Movie.
I’m happy to say that I can successfully say my 12-year-old self is filled with joy because "A Christmas Prince" is the movie I have been looking for. Allow me to paint you a picture:
So on a sleepless night in November scrolling on Netflix, I came upon one of their original films, “A Christmas Prince”.
The description told me “A Christmas Prince” was a movie that came onto screen in 2017 starring Rose Mclever as Amber, an ambitious journalist, and Ben Lamb as Richard, a rowdy prince.
I obviously began to watch the movie and, just like that, I was encaptivated. The scenery resembles the idyllic Christmas land with beautiful trees and white snow falling perfectly in every shot in the fictional country Aldovia where the movie takes place and it's true what the Aldovians say, “no one does Christmas like Aldovia.”
The protagonist, Amber, is given a task to travel to the fictional country Aldovia to go undercover and find royal secrets about the “playboy” Prince before he is crowned king on Christmas day, but during her research, she begins to fall in love with him. The plot on its own is completely unrealistic but I think that's what makes the movie so great.
This movie is filled with ironically bad acting, but I can't help but love it. Amber's best friends, who are also journalists, stay in contact with her during her mission and their characters are just… odd. One of my favorite lines from the best friend is, “Where there's a tiara, there's dirt. Trust me.” I laughed and cringed… cringed a lot, but I continued watching because although the acting was not exactly fantastic, the movie was addicting.
But my feelings took a turn when Prince Richard and Amber started to fall in love. I became invested, I empathized with Richard, I was nervous when Amber was nervous, it was like I was in the movie.
Each romantic scene was absolutely perfect. The romance, the fire, the connection was all there.
I finished this movie with tears in my eyes. I would love to say happy tears, but I wanted more. I needed to know what would happen next, so when the ‘more like this' section told me there was a sequel I was overwhelmed with excitement.
The movie series continues with the second movie, “A Christmas Prince: A Royal Wedding”. I was a little timid to watch it because I was worried that it wouldn't be as great as the first movie, but I can proudly say that I was wrong. The movie exceeded all my expectations and was maybe even better than the first movie.
In the first couple minutes of the movie, we see both Amber and Richard's character growth shine through. But one of the main differences in this movie was the overall theme. This movie was not just about a girl falling in love with a prince, it was a girl taking charge and making major changes in a small country. It took a hardcore feminist twist, and I was here for it.
In this movie, Richard is now king and his first action was attempting to move Aldovia into the 21st century, but by doing this the country has fallen into a financial crisis and he doesn't seem to know why. Amber wants to help find out where all the money is going but the royals ignore her help and tell her to “plan the wedding.” This is where the main feminist themes come into play.
Amber knows she is worth more than just a pretty face and decides to investigate the problem on her own.
I never knew that a Hallmark-style Christmas movie could be more than just a romance film, but this movie proved me wrong. It was suddenly inspiring, with much higher quality production and acting than the original. Now, I’m not saying the acting was great all of a sudden, but it wasn't as bad anymore. But that's one of the best things about this movie: it forces you to put away your inner critic and just enjoy the movie.
After lots of begging and pleading from A Christmas Prince fandom, Netflix finally released the third movie of this trilogy, “A Christmas Prince: The Royal Baby”.
The same feminist theme remains in this movie, maybe even more than the first.
Amber is now queen of Aldovia and she and Richard are expecting! And, of course, the baby is due on Christmas.
Before Amber and Richard take a leave from work they have one final task which is signing a treaty, which suddenly goes missing. Amber obviously decides she needs to find where and who stole the missing scroll not only for peace in the kingdom but for the safety of her family.
By the third movie, I was extremely attached to the characters. Richard wasn't a “playboy” prince anymore he was a very successful king and Amber is no longer a want to be journalist, she has her own very popular blog and is an amazing queen.
I didn't want to say goodbye to “A Christmas Prince” but the movie finally ended and Netflix turned down the production of a fourth movie.
These three movies are so much more than plotless Hallmark Christmas movies, they’re about feminism, romance, Christmas spirit, and love. The first time (yes I've watched the movies more than once) I watched this series I pulled out my phone and sent a very long and very important message to my group of friends telling them they needed to watch these movies and I quote “the best Christmas movies ever” and I quote again “they are life-changing”.
And eventually, I did convince my friend group to watch this inspiring movie, and of course, they loved it.
Macy Hallama, 12, was one of my friends that watched this iconic movie series. “A Christmas Prince is my new obsession,” she said.
For seven years of my life, I had been searching for a Christmas movie to give me that same high of the Christmas spirit from when I was twelve and now, 18 years old, I found it, I felt it, that same happiness and excitement for Christmas and love was restored. So if you need some Christmas spirit I cannot recommend “A Christmas Prince” enough.