The other day, I made a mistake.  Because I have seen so many Christmas movies over the past few weeks, I forgot the title of one I had been trying to avoid: The Merry Gentleman (2024).  It is one of a growing horde of seasonal titles on Netflix, and is about a woman who returns home to her family’s struggling nightclub.  In order to save it, she comes up with the idea of starting an all-male dancing review.  Think Magic Mike (2012), I guess, and you get the idea.  I have little sense of such things, actually, because as a practicing Catholic I do not consume such material.  Hence, when I got to the part where the main character, Ashley (Britt Robertson), comes up with the idea of putting the guys on the stage, I shut it off.  Luckily only about twenty minutes had passed, so it did not completely throw off my evening.  In that span, there is a scene where Ashley is watching A Christmas Prince (2017).  It makes sense as they are made by the same production company.  It reminded me, though, that there are two others to discuss in the A Christmas Prince trilogy.  With the liturgical calendar about to return to Ordinary time I thought, why not?  Hence, here is A Christmas Prince: The Royal Wedding (2018).

During the year since we met King Richard Charlton (Ben Lamb) and his fiancée, Amber Moore (Rose McIver), they have spent the majority of their engagement before A Christmas Prince: The Royal Wedding strangely apart.  The opening montage shows them being together in certain snippets, but Amber’s narration states that it has been more of a long-distance relationship.  Whatever the case, their public appearances have prepared her for her arrival in the fictional European nation of Aldovia, along with her father, Rudy Moore (John Guerrasio).  Their attempt at avoiding paparazzi fails when their taxi is rudely taken by Sahil Mattu (Raj Bajaj), who will turn out to be the demanding designer of Amber’s wedding gown.  As the cameras crowd around, they are saved by Mr. Louis Zabala (Andy Lucas), who has been assigned to be the queen-to-be’s royal assistant.  Upon getting to the palace, Amber finds a number of changes.  More personally, there is the promotion of Mrs. Averill (Sarah Douglas), a stickler for protocol, as the new head of public relations, so to speak.  She makes it clear that Amber is now the possession of the Aldovian people, meaning the fiancée will no longer have control over her own decisions.  This blow is not lessened by her fiancé, who is constantly called away by affairs of the state, such as his plan to bring in modern reforms.  Though his ideas appear sound, nothing is working and the citizens are becoming angry.  Lurking in the shadows of this discontent is Count Simon Duxbury (Theo Devaney), the king’s cousin and who, in the last film, had tried to usurp the throne.  We see him at one of King Richard’s speeches on reform, but Count Simon later turns up at the palace to throw himself on the mercy of the royal court.  This occurs just as Aldovia is beginning to address the public’s complaints, and Count Simon offers his help to deal with the issues, citing his education and desire to render assistance to his native country.  Because nobody trusts him, his help is rejected, though he is allowed to stick around given that he is family and it is Christmas.  Instead, King Richard, at the advice of the Queen Mother, Helena Charlton (Alice Krige), turn to the late ruler’s most trusted advisor, Lord Leopold Plumtree (Simon Dutton).  He comes in and tells King Richard to stick to the plan of bringing Aldovia up-to-date, adding that it would have been King Richard’s father’s dream to see this happen.  Yet, the protests continue, and Amber, tired of being told what she can and cannot do, tracks down an Aldovian who had written the royal family to inform them of his recent plight.  She is joined by her friends from the United States who have come for the nuptials, but are saved from reporters this time by Count Simon.  Before they are hustled out of the out of the bar where this supposedly secret meeting takes place, she learns that the discrepancy in state funds is due to massive fraud inside the government.  This gives her a clue as to where to dig further, getting some computer hacking from her future sister-in-law, Princess Emily Charlton (Honor Kneafsey).  However, before Amber can bring any of her information to light, Mrs. Averill learns of Amber’s appearance in a local watering hole and demands that the queen-in-waiting ceases all such activity.  When King Richard is hesitant in defending her, the pressures of the wedding and everything else cause her to escape the palace.  As King Richard is beginning to look for Amber, he is informed by Princess Emily that it is Lord Leopold who is behind the Aldovia’s corruption.  After apologizing to Amber for his behavior, King Richard brings her back and they institute a number of changes, beginning with Lord Leopold’s imprisonment.  This includes making the upcoming marriage ceremony more about King Richard and Amber than what others expect it to be.  With this, everything goes off without a hitch, and we close with the newlyweds stealing a kiss outside of where the reception is happening.

The final smooch in A Christmas Prince: The Royal Wedding is interrupted when the guests chassé past in a conga line.  The rest of the film is interrupted by the various Christmas traditions inserted into what is essentially a plot about palace intrigue, lest we forget that this is supposed to be a Holiday film.  The overwhelming majority of these vignettes have nothing to do with the true meaning of the season, though there are a few songs that speak to the birth of Jesus.  Hence, I will be talking about the non-Christmas-y aspects of the story for my Catholic analysis.  Namely, I was struck by Amber’s struggle with giving up her identity for the sake of the kingdom.  It works for the movie because it is about a crazy American bringing her rock n’ roll culture to a stuffy European nation that runs on tradition.  It is New World individualism versus Old World protocol.  As a Catholic, I have a different view on this matter than my compatriots.  Historically speaking, this has always been viewed as a problem in this country, but that is a discussion for another day.  Getting back to the film, Amber is called upon to do things that are seen as for the benefit of her new country, even if that means doing away with things she considers intrinsic to her character.  In one scene, as she is posing for a portrait with King Richard, she is told to remove a locket containing a picture of her deceased mother to be replaced with state jewels.  In a broad sense, I could not understand her hesitation, or why this added to her frustration with the process.  You take off the necklace for a moment, put the bedazzled ornamentation on for another moment, swap them around once more, and done.  From a Catholic perspective, God desires us to identify with Him above everything.  This appears an increasingly hard thing to do in our modern world that gives individuality primacy.  Faith says the truth that we are not the center of the universe, God is, and as such we should take our cues from Him.  He knows best how to not only serve our needs, but to do so in the context of others.  This reminds me of the proper hierarchy as related on one of the marquees at my parish this Christmas season, given in an acronym for JOY: Jesus, Others, Yourself.  To be fair to Amber, she does care about Aldovia and her family and friends.  I just find it unfair that she would be stubborn on these rather smaller issues.

I do not want to label Amber as selfish in A Christmas Prince: The Royal Wedding.  Everyone is capable of that kind of behavior.  Still, it gets magnified when you are dealing with traditions that effect an entire nation.  As such, I saw in her behavior many of the problems people have with Faith today.  Hopefully, this review will cause you to re-examine some of your thoughts on the matter instead of watching this movie.