A Christmas movie kerfuffle on Netflix
The Washington Post
In mid-November, Netflix launched “A Christmas Prince,” a truly bonkers original holiday movie that would have been right at home on Lifetime or Hallmark. It quickly caught on and probably would have gotten lost amid the holiday schmaltz if not for this tweet sent out last Sunday night:
“To the 53 people who’ve watched ‘A Christmas Prince’ every day for the past 18 days: Who hurt you?” — Netflix US
The response was massive (retweeted about 110,000 times so far) and alternated between amused and scornful. Anyway, the tweet kerfuffle was in the news last week, so here’s everything you need to know about the movie. (Spoilers abound.)
1. The plot
“A Christmas Prince” joins a list of movies in which a royal and a verymuch-non-royal have a meet-cute; one of them intensely dislikes the other; and then they almost immediately wind up married.
It also joins a pantheon of films in which a female journalist falls in love with the man she’s writing about. The film centers around Amber, a 20-something in New York City who works at a magazine called Now Beat. Amber strives to be a serious journalist, but she can’t get any good story assignments — until the Now Beat editor wants to send someone to the European country of Aldovia. The dashing young Prince Richard is about to be named king. But the kingdom is about to hold a press conference where he might abdicate the throne.
None of the other Now Beat writers are around, so Amber gets the story. When she arrives in Aldovia, Richard ditches the press conference. Panicked, Amber starts snooping around, only to be mistaken for the American tutor of Richard’s younger sister.
Of course, she winds up bonding with the whole family and yes, at some point, Amber’s true identity is revealed.
2. The plot holes
Oh, there are so many: Would a royal family just assume a woman wandering around the property is a tutor and not ask any other questions? Could Amber be any more obvious as she snaps multiple photos during a cocktail party? And seriously, Now Beat magazine?!
3. The low-budget charm
The movie was filmed at the Peles Castle in Romania, which is quite beautiful, but as Entertainment Weekly puts it, “The Aldovian castle is about as nice as a midlevel ski resort or the Bavarian pavilion at Epcot.”
4. The actors
New Zealand actress Rose McIver, who plays Amber, stars on CW’s drama “iZombie” — and she might be the most identifiable face. Prince Richard is played by Ben Lamb, who you could recognize if you’re a fan of “The White Queen” on BBC and then Starz.
5. And, it’s not ’My Christmas Prince’
Why, that’s a completely different movie! “My Christmas Prince,” which debuted in early December on Lifetime, is all about Samantha, a 20-something New York teacher who goes home to Wisconsin for the holidays. There she learns her seemingly normal boyfriend is (wait for it) actually a prince! Got it? Good.