Review: Hallmark’s “A Winter Princess”

“A Winter Princess” aired on January 18, 2019 on the Hallmark Channel. Filmed at the apparently gorgeous Big White resort in British Columbia, it stars Natalie Hall as Princess Carlotta (Carly) and Chris McNally as Jesse, with assists by Hallmark staples Casey Manderson as Prince Gustav, Carly’s brother and Brendan Zub as childhood suitor Prince Emile.

Plot

The story itself is typical for a lot of Hallmark movies and therefore scored pretty high on the Tropes list. Event planning, a company’s future on the line, character returning to a small town (in this case, Jesse). The only thing missing was a Christmas Eve deadline and some Christmas tree decorating in the lodge and this could have been a Christmas movie.

In a nutshell, Carly is the assistant event planner at Snowden Peak, but when the lead planner quits the resort owner asks Carly to take the lead on planning the Snow Ball. The owner also calls in her brother, Jesse, to work on the big event. As Carly and Jesse begin working together, their attraction for each other grows. But when Carly’s twin, Prince Gustav, and their mutual royal friend, Prince Emile arrive, her royal identity is nearly exposed. Fortunately, Jesse has already discovered the secret and agrees to keep it quiet. As Jesse and Carly decide to hold the ball at the resort’s unused Summit Lodge, they find out that the resort might be sold, and decide to make the gala a fundraiser to turn the resort into a year-round destination. Will they succeed? Will Prince Emile’s presence cause problems for Jesse? Will Carly go back to Lanovia, her home country? I think you know all the answers to those questions, if you’ve watched ANY Hallmark movies at all.

Actors

Let’s talk about the actors. I had to Google Natalie Hall’s age in the first five minutes of the movie because she initially seemed more like a college co-ed than an experienced event planner given the opportunity! of! a! lifetime! (you know, despite being a princess and all). Sure enough, she’s in her late 20s not her early 20s. Color me surprised. I also had to Google Chris McNally because I knew I had seen him in something else. Sure enough he played “Cody” in Hallmark’s “Rocky Mountain Christmas” in 2017 – which means I may need to start a “Six Hallmark Degrees of Separation from Kris Polaha” game going forward. In this case: 1 degree, since Polaha was the lead guy in “RMC.” I thought Hall and McNally did a fine job with a relatively weak story that did not do too much to bring the two characters together in any real way.

Chemistry

I thought Hall and McNally were fine, although I had an issue with their initial meet-cute at the beginning of the movie. When she pulled him out from the way of an oncoming vehicle, they each played their meeting like they were awkward high schoolers – McNally in particular. It was weird and it took me a long time to get on board with them being the love interests. In fact, in many scenes I actually thought Hall had better chemistry with Brendon Zub, who played her erstwhile suitor Prince Emile. For half the movie I was rooting for him, not Jesse.

Feelgoods

There were almost no feelgoods in this one. I did like the Summit Lodge although all they ever really showed was the outside of the building and the entrance inside. They never did a sweeping shot of the entire interior once it was decorated, which is a shame. But as for emotional heartstring tugs, this one left me cold.

Tropes

This is where the movie shined. As I said, this has a lot of typical Hallmark things that I love. 1) A big event being planned, 2) a company’s entire future on the line, 3) a character returning to his small town, 4) someone slipping and being caught causing romantic tension, 5) the almost kiss, 6) ice skating (this time on a real rink and the actors could actually skate), and quite a few others.

Did I Hear/See That Right?

There were quite a few moments of confusion in this movie, but I’ll mention the main three that stood out for me.

First, when Prince Emile took Carly out on their date, he took her to Snowshoe Sam’s and she asked him, “How did you find out about this place?” with almost surprise and wonder in her voice, as if she did not know about the only bar in town despite living there for almost a year. I’m sorry, but if you live in a small town, you know the local hangout spot. Even moreso if you are an ASSISTANT EVENT PLANNER in that same small town.

Second, don’t get me started on the British accents by Manderson and Zub. I supposed Zub’s was passable in most scenes, but Manderson seemed to just give up and only pronounce the name “Carly” with an accent but not everything else. But I still have great love for Manderson, who is an actor in the Hallmark stable who is in a LOT of their movies.

Third, Carly makes a big point of saying she needs to go home and run interference between her father, the king, and her brother, Prince Gustav. But when the king shows up and hangs out with Gustav (while hiding from Carly (?!)), I never really got a sense that they didn’t get along. The king never seemed like an overbearing jerk of a dad, which was kind of implied when she spoke of the king and prince’s relationship with each other. Yes, she told her dad she’d come home after a year, but he seemed like a pretty open guy who would have been willing to listen to her hope to stay at Snowden Peak (and indeed WAS open to letting her stay). It just seemed like a whole bunch of nothing.

Re-watchability

Would I watch this again? Nope. Not even if there was nothing else on at the time. One and done works for me.

I struggled through this one, y’all. I like a good Hallmark princess movie, and while I appreciated the detours on typical tropes (such as the princess remaining incognito until only 15 minutes are left in the movie), and the filming location makes me want to go to there (/Liz Lemon impression), this movie felt underbaked.

The Ranking

So where does it fit in the rankings?  I knew going in that it would be below the first two movies that are part of Hallmark’s Winterfest 2019.

1. One Winter Proposal (air date: January 12) – 635 points – final weighted score: 100.8 points (66.1%)
2. The Winter Castle (air date: January 5) – 605 points – final weighted score: 92.4 points (60.6%)
3. A Winter Princess (air date: January 18) – 540 points – final weighted score: 78.5 points (51.5%)

To see my entire ranking of Hallmark movies, visit my Hallmark Movie Rankings page!

What are your thoughts on “A Winter Princess?”