Royal-ish
Writer: Tracy Andreen; based on the novel Once Upon a Royal Summer by Teri Wilson
Director: Roger M. Bobb
Cast: Nichole Sakura, William Moseley, Francesca Europa, Emily Swain, Stephen Mullan, Sophia Adli, Brendan Dempsey, Hannah Brady, John Nayagam, Ann Maria Bridges, Rory Nolan
Nichole Sakura (The Finnish Line, Superstore) plays Lacey, a theme park princess stuck in a professional holding pattern after being rejected from a masters program. Don't feel bad for her! She loves being Princess Sweet Pea at Once Upon a Time Land. Her job is dressing up in a sparkly gown and making kids happy.
Unfortunately there's an expiration date on theme park princesses, and since Lacey is no longer in her early 20s, she's entering evil stepmother and wicked witch territory. Fairy tales really need to add more roles for women ages 25 to 50. But whatever — that's tomorrow's problem. Right now, Lacey has to host Princess Sweet Pea's tea party — and she has two unlikely guests.
Those guests are Prince Henry (Christmas in Notting Hill's William Moseley) and his daughter, Princess Rose (My Norwegian Holiday's Francesca Europa) of ... I'm going to guess it's spelled Bella Moritz, but, y'know, Weird Europe. Henry's whisked his daughter away to a theme park in Virginia for her 9th birthday — and also to take her mind off of the upcoming Procession of the Order of the Lily, wherein she will have to overcome her fears and ride a horse. It's a thing, just go with it.
Princess Sweet Pea does the trick and, after spending a day acting as the royals' personal tour guide/princess, Henry enacts a whisking upon Lacey, flying her to Bella Moritz so she can continue to provide emotional support for Rose as she trains to ride a large horse for a 500-year-old ceremony.
How will Sweet Pea — I mean Lacey handle these royal duties? How will the royal family of Bella Moritz react to Lacey? And how long will it take for Henry to realize that he needs Lacey too?
Smalltown, U.S.A.: The fictional Emerald Park where Lacey works is located in Virginia. The bulk of the movie takes place in a corner of Weird Europe called Bella Moritz, which is described as a small principality. It's small enough that the prince can go to a private theme park tea party with no disguise and not be recognized by Princess Sweet Pea. Of course when he's out and about in Virginia or Bella Moritz, he has to make like a Marvel superhero and wear a plain baseball cap.
Exposition: There is so much exposition. The first minute sets up the entire scenario, as Prince Henry and his head of security (Stephen Mullan) drop nouns while fencing. There's an abdication, a Golden Jubilee, the Order of the Lily —and that's just the beginning.
LOL: When Lacey's roommate asks what Bella Moritz is like, Lacey says, "I walked into Bridgerton with a side of Outlander." While the script doesn't have many more LOL moments, Nichole Sakura's line reads and general demeanor are so much fun and carry most of the humor. There's a fantastic scene between her and the queen where Lacey is just trying to be nice, the queen keeps not understanding how to be a person, which makes Lacey more awkward, and round it goes.
No Small Parts: You know things are about to get diabolical when a royal advisor shows up, and Brendan Dempsey makes Varon a true love-to-hate-him villain. I mean, it helps that Nichole Sakura is so naturally sweet and likable that anyone being mean to her looks three times worse.
What's In a Name?: Royal-ish doesn't really match the movie; you'd think a movie with that title would be about a distant relative of a royal family. Or that title would work if Lacey had to use her theme park princess experience to pose as a "legit" royal. Still, Royal-ish captures the youthful, effervescent vibe that the movie is going for.
Like last week's The Reluctant Royal, Royal-ish largely succeeds because of its lead. Sakura is perfectly cast as a sweet actress playing a Disney-adjacent princess. She knows how to push the physical comedy just far enough (her extreme curtsy) and she can make any piece of dialogue into a joke. Her presence is absolutely welcome in the Hallmark pantheon.
Royal-ish also does a solid job of approaching the royal romance sub-genre from a new angle: that of theme park royalty. I know, I know — it sounds silly, but this movie actually puts a great deal of respect on the thankless gig of being an attraction's living photo opportunity. The way Lacey uses her BA in psychology to connect with kids, including crouching down to their level, is a really insightful touch early on that leads to some surprisingly deep commentary of the role of royal families IRL.
I wish that the movie had leaned into the "what real royal families can learn from fairy tale royals" angle even more. That's a clear premise from which to make a movie. Instead, the movie sets up multiple conflicts as if it wasn't satisfied with the previous one. Rose needs to overcome her fear of horses — done. But also her mom died four years ago — okay. And the queen demands Rose be tutored at home rather than attend an outside school — let's go with that. But Prince Henry feels overlooked, like a piece of furniture in his own home — sure! And also there's Lacey, who mustn't be publicly linked to Princess Sweet Pea, lest the park's kayfabe be broken! Wow! These are the kinds of levels you can get away with in a novel, but Royal-ish should've chosen one and had more fun with it.
But overall, while Royal-ish doesn't have the LOLs of The Reluctant Royal, it has a solid cast that builds a strong feeling of familiarity that pulls you in ... just don't think as much about the plot as the characters do.
