What I have discovered from watching Christmas movies is that there are a few different sub-genres of this sub-genre.  On the whole, they are mostly just romantic comedies with a Holidays backdrop.  They are nearly all as predictable as that sounds.  Between them, though, there are a few threads to be highlighted.  There may be more, but here are three I have picked out: the inheritance plot, the location plot, and the unexpected love plot.  The last of these is common to most of them, and seldom do they have anything to do with the birth of the real Christmas Prince, the Prince of Peace, Jesus.  However, with A Christmas Prince (2017), it is the first of these invented categories that applies.  As I describe the plot, this should become apparent.

For Amber Moore (Rose McIver), A Christmas Prince is seemingly far away, but about to be closer.  She is a junior editor for a magazine and is used to being bossed around by the regular journalists, but with ambitions of one day having her own byline.  Her desire to advance her career is noticed by her boss, Max Golding (Amy Marston), who sends her to the fictional kingdom of Aldovia to cover the upcoming coronation of the nation’s playboy heir to the throne, Prince Richard Charlton (Ben Lamb).  It also helps that it is nearly Christmas and the publication has no one else to send.  Amber’s introduction to the high-powered world of international journalism begins and almost ends when Prince Richard fails to attend the press conference she was set attend.  Seeing her opportunity to make her career in jeopardy, Amber sneaks around to the back of the palace and slips into an open door.  That could get you shot in some countries but this is a Christmas movie.  When she is finally noticed by a member of the staff, she is mistaken as Princess Emily Charlton’s (Honor Kneafsey) tutor, an error Amber does not correct.  Amber is now Martha Anderson, but her ruse almost fails when she finally sees Prince Richard, who she realizes had stolen her taxi at the airport.  Princess Emily is also not thrilled to have to study so close to Christmas, and has generally developed a reputation as being a menace to her teachers.  Amber succeeds where the others have failed with Princess Emily because she treats the young member of the royal family as a person instead of coddling because of her position or the young girl’s spina bifida.  The fact that Princess Emily’s math lessons are beyond Amber also means that the two do not spend as much time as perhaps they should on learning.  As Amber gets into Princess Emily’s good graces, the aspiring reporter discovers that Prince Richard is not the philanderer the press has made him out to be.  This is the side of her brother that Princess Emily wants the world to see, which is why she does not disclose Amber’s true identity when the young lady looks through her erstwhile teacher’s computer.  The revelation that Prince Richard is a more serious person than his reputation would suggest comes with a few pitfalls.  One is Baroness Sofia Taylor (Emma Louise Saunders), who used to be after Prince Richard for his throne, and has been invited for the coronation by his mother, Queen Helena Charlton (Alice Krige).  Baroness Sofia clearly wants to be close with Prince Richard again, but like everything else he does relating to his status, he is uneasy with her presence.  Amber notices this and senses something inside him that might be the key to why he is going through with his ascension despite evident doubts.  At first, this is also designed to help her with her career, but as inevitably happens in these films, she begins to fall in love with him.  Both of these prerogatives have her catching up with him while he is out horseback riding one day.  Her own steed throws her off at one point after losing track of him, but he soon finds her and they go back to a romantic hunting lodge once owned by the late king.  Their first kiss is aborted when a noise outside sends him off to investigate.  While he is out of the room, she discovers a secret compartment in the desk that holds documents proving that Prince Richard is adopted.  Under Aldovian law, only a person of true royal blood can inherit the crown.  She is torn now between having the material needed to assure journalistic advancement and her desire to do right by people about whom she has come to care.  The decision is made for her when Baroness Sofia sees Amber and Prince Richard returning to the palace riding the same horse.  In a fit of jealousy, she and Prince Richard’s cousin, Count Simon Duxbury (Theo Devaney), who wants the throne for himself, break into Amber’s room looking for something to ruin the upstart.  Count Simon and Baroness Sofia get lucky when they find not only Amber’s passport with her real name, but also the certificate showing that Prince Richard is adopted.  The conspirators wait until the next day, with Amber getting a royal makeover for the occasion, to reveal their information at Prince Richard’s Christmas coronation.  Amber leaves in shame, but as she is speaking to her dad, Rudy Moore (Daniel Fathers), she realizes a clue based on Prince Richard’s father’s diaries she had reviewed the night she uncovered the secret documents.  Heading back to the palace, Amber goes to a Christmas ornament left just before the death of her husband to Queen Helena.  Inside it, Amber finds a decree written by the late monarch acknowledging Prince Richard’s adopted state and naming the young man his successor despite his background.  Amber takes this to parliament just before the crown is about to be placed on Count Simon’s head, and is able to right her wrong.  Still, she returns to the United States, but is not there long when the now King Richard II of Aldovia comes to New York City to propose to Amber on New Year’s Eve.

Now that we are past the time when having A Christmas Prince makes sense (to some), it is refreshing that New Year’s Eve is included in this film.  If you are confused by the fact that I am still writing about these movies, be prepared to continue to be in such a state.  I feel the same way watching all these stories that are supposed to be about Christmas and never have anything to do with why we celebrate the Holiday.  All the same, you should know by now if you keep up with The Legionnaire that such content is the exception rather than the rule, and the same holds true for this one.  There are plenty of snippets I could point to in order to expound on Catholic teaching in different areas.  I should give it some credit for playing mainly Christian hymns like “The First Noel” and “Silent Night” among the carol selections.  The conspiracy theorist/pessimist in me says that these were picked because of the foreign setting, and that is where it is still okay to be a Christian in the eyes of Hollywood, but I would need a much longer format to explain all that to you.  Or you can read my doctoral dissertation, “The Costumed Catholic: Catholics, Whiteness, and the Movies, 1928-1973.”  The rest of these snippets are the stuff of fortune cookie wisdom, a label that was actually said in the movie, so it is not simply me being flippant.  If I were to seize on any of these supposedly deep tidbits, it would be the notion that everything is going to be okay.  It is a reassurance that Amber gives to Prince Richard as he wrestles with the decision to follow in his father’s footsteps.  It is such a simple thought, but one that has a greater depth than we realize when taken in the context of Faith.  The fact that such words are needed indicates that Prince Richard is worried, and that is something Jesus would tell all of us is not always warranted.  God is in control, and it is when we forget this fact that it looks to us like things are going poorly.  No matter what happens, we are in God’s hands, and He will make everything more than okay.

Unfortunately, A Christmas Prince is less than okay.  It is not terrible, but like the sub-sub-genres I described in the introduction, it follows a familiar formula.  In other words, you have already seen this movie.