This is another low budget Reel One Entertainment TV movie which involves European royalty. It's all over the place. Technically is mostly fine. Music score is mix of clasical music which is actually good, and some stupid melancholic score like in many new ROE TV movies which wouldn't be a big deal if it wasn't a bit of annoyingly loud in few scenes. Stock footage was minimal.
I didn't lower a score because of location, but if you start to think about it, it's actually both bad and funny. It was shot in Hamilton, but they used Stockholm stock footage for the capital of fictional Kingdom of Samovia in Europe. It's not a problem per se, except that fictional country is located near Italy, even in Act III we see Pienza stock footage were prince Oliver went so why use Scandinavian city when country is close to Mediterranean? No sense at all. Furthermore, royal cottage where ~80% of the movie takes place is laughable not only because of displaced architecture, but does it looks like one at all? Say what you want, but at least Hallmark royal movies mostly get shot in Transylvania in real castles.
Cast is mostly good. Laura Miyata carried movie. I would say she was even better than in "Love and the Radio Star". Sadly her partner, David Lafontaine was only so-so. I didn't believe in their romance. Annie Clark was the second best. Even with a bit of annoying writing, she still managed to pull it off.
My main issue with the movie is weak directing. Why queen and king looked like they were wearing second hand clothes? I already mentioned royal cottage. What about mixed accents in royal family? The mix of American and British one (king and prince Henry because they are real life Brits). And yet, royal family has German surname...
Overall, I would give it a mediocre rating (3*), but Laura Miyata as a lead, and Annie Clark as a main support carried movie.
And obligatory don't watch trailer (for some reasons here is only posted shortened version) as it's the ROE one and for some unknown reason(s) it shows whole movie compressed.
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