As it was my turn this week to choose a Christmas film, I decided that I should take this responsibility seriously, and pick the worst Christmas movie I could find on Netflix. Searching with the word “Christmas” yielded many badly photo-shopped thumbnails of beautiful women in scarves smiling sweetly in front of a snowy backdrop. So I knew I was spoiled for choice. Scrolling through synopses I finally settled on Christmas with a Prince (2018) dir. Justin G. Dyck.
Not to be confused of course with A Christmas Prince (2017) which was also a tempting option.
Christmas with a Prince is a romantic tale of a dedicated and beautiful pediatrician Doctor Tash (Kaitlyn Leeb), saddled with taking care of the selfish Prince Alexander (Nick Hounslow) after a skiing accident. I was so confused by this premise (wait – pediatrician?? Is the prince twelve-years-old?) that we simply had to watch it. – Lauren
Lauren’s verdict:
Thankfully the prince was not a child, but un-thankfully he WAS a terrible adult actor. Prince Alexander breaks his leg while skiing and is taken to a nearby hospital to secretly be treated in the pediatrics ward, as to deter attention of paparazzi and keep him safe. I assume from assassins?? He is there being treated under the watchful eye of his old school friend and local nurse, Jeff, and Jeff’s effortlessly beautiful sister, Doctor Tash. Or Doctor Tasha or Doctor Natasha, the scriptwriters can’t seem to decide on the right name for her so generously provide us with all three. It comes to light that our Doctor Tash once had a complicated crush on the prince back when they were in boarding school together, and still holds a flame for him. Which is harder and harder to comprehend the longer we get to stare at his weird wax-work face. Seriously, this guy is like an alien in a human skinsuit. While the prince is healing he begins to see Doctor Tash’s big heart, and her determination to help sick children with their awful cancer treatments. While also somehow, being baffled that these children with cancer are sad. He bonds with one of the young cancer patients, and the boy shares his favourite song with the prince – Jingle Bells. I’m serious here, an eleven year old boy’s favourite artist is a lady who sings Christmas carols. It’s super weird, you guys. The blossoming romance between Tasha and Prince Alec/Alexander (they give him two names too) culminates in a long awaited kiss on his last day at the hospital. Why a crown prince would need to spend an entire week in a children’s hospital just for a broken leg, I’ll never know. He then invites the good Doctor to a royal dinner. She hesitantly agrees, fearing she doesn’t belong there. Her fears are realised when multiple guests at the party subsequently say “You don’t belong here” to her face. As she leaves, crestfallen, she is stopped in the hallway by Prince Alec’s father – The King, and he tells her that she doesn’t belong there BUT that’s because she’s better than everyone else. Which is notably what every woman wants to hear from a strange man in a hallway. And Doctor Tashy, filled with renewed self-esteem, makes her way back to the dining room for her first dance and third, romantic, closed-mouth kiss with Prince Alexander.
I wanted so desperately to hate this film, and I almost did, but unfortunately for me the movie didn’t take itself too seriously. Almost poking fun of itself in crucial moments. That of course doesn’t warrant a super high rating anyhow, but I will grant it a bare minimum just for Jeff’s comic relief and his magical ability to grant life to this limp salad of a film.
1.5 out of 5 princely crowns 👑
Jeremy’s verdict:
Christmas with a Prince is the kind of movie that will most likely appeal to people who, well… dream of spending Christmas with a real, royal-blooded prince of some kind. And it’s narrative and dialogue is more than a little paint-by-numbers as a result, juggling cliche after cliche. For example, very early on when Dr Tash’s Chief Medical Officer tells her the hospital board hasn’t allocated enough funds for all of the children’s treatments, it’s quickly obvious that somehow the wealthy and cocky royal Prince Alec will step in to save the day with his bottomless wallet. The ‘here comes an old flame’ twist of Princess Miranda showing up at the hospital was also obvious from a mile away (especially as everyone seemed so happy – broken leg largely healed, and our budding couple had locked lips for the first time – but there was still half an hour to go on the film!). Plot aside, because it’s what you expect it will be, let’s dig right into what Christmas with a Prince did well.
And truthfully, it was Nurse Jeff (Josh Dean) whose comic relief and personality saved the day. For example, when his nurse colleague tries to adjust her day’s workload to include looking after the handsome Prince, Jeff sees right through it, telling her to change a child’s gauze or he’ll put her on “bedpan duty”. After the nurse leaves, Jeff laughs and quietly says “doody”. Yes, I laughed, but ridiculous and silly moments like that from Jeff kind of made the film. They were some of the only parts that didn’t feel predictable.
Other moments astounded and amused in equal measure. The Prince’s security staff supposedly have bodyguards stationed around the hospital for his protection and privacy, but somehow two children manage to sneak into his room? And at one point, Dr Tash is telling her friend about her old boarding school crush, only for her friend to demand all of the details, invite herself to a sleepover at Tash’s place, and then call for the check at the restaurant they’re at. Oh, it’s only a joke, you think, surely they went on to a bar or something – but no, the movie implies they then had a sleepover to spill the beans on the Prince. They metaphorically spilled the beans, of course – but with a movie like this, literally hurling beans at the Prince would have been just as likely.
Perhaps most worryingly is when Prince Alec’s security entourage have Dr Tash and her friend tailed. The next day Tash is prompted about it by Bella (Melinda Shankar), the head of security, who denies Tash was being followed with a knowing wink. But somehow, Alec has a recording of Tash and her friend spilling the beans (again, metaphorically) about how handsome he is. How embarrassing! Alec offers to delete the recording – and Tash thanks him for doing so – but can we please acknowledge how big a red flag it is for him to access recordings of her private conversations, presumably from a bug his security staff planted in her home?
Despite all of this, something in me feels compelled to watch the sequel, Christmas with a Prince: Becoming Royal (2019). I feel I owe it to Jeff to see how his story turns out. And while I might rate it differently, I can also accept that Amazon reviews for this film are quite positive, so maybe these royal adventures are just not for me. The top review for Australia is titled ‘Not as good as it could have been’ and hilariously still gives the film 5 stars, so I’m obviously missing something.
If you like princes and Christmas and big chiselled jaws, maybe watch this? But on the other hand, maybe there’s a Nurse Jeff cut of the film on YouTube somewhere instead.
1.5 out of 5 princely crowns 👑
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