A lot happens in very quick succession in this movie. Barely a few hours after Tasha's plane lands (perhaps it isn't even that long), Alexander gets down on one knee and asks her to marry him. Barely a few minutes later, they decide to get married right away, at Christmas - never mind the trouble of planning and hosting a Royal wedding in a mere few days, in addition to negotiating a critical treaty with an international partner. When the king points out that they can't exclude the people from the Royal wedding, Tasha is quick to come up with a solution: "Oh, we can live stream the whole thing!". Everybody agrees. It's all a bit absurd actually...
Only one person in the palace is unhappy about this arrangement: the princess Miranda, daughter of Queen Olivia and a woman who, for a long time, nurtured expectations of marrying prince Alexander. Miranda engineers a plot to get Alex to call off the wedding, forcing him to choose between his love for Tasha and his princely duties, and the question that looms in the air is: what will he choose?
If the main story was a little boring, the secondary plot between Queen Olivia and King Edward is much more enjoyable to follow. The two monarchs seem to have a thing for each other, but in a much less flashy and less overdone way than the protagonists. The king enjoys taking care of his horseback riding equipment, and there's a lovely scene between himself and Queen Olivia when she remarks how admirable it is that he is cleaning up his saddle with his bare hands. It is easy for someone like them to buy new things, she says, but taking care of old things and keeping them all your life, that takes a special character...
It was hard to believe that Christmas with a Prince had a sequel, but it did, and I actually think the sequel is a little better than the first one. I still have some problems with the dialogue and how... didactic everything is. If ever there was an opportunity for me to understand the importance of "show, don't tell" - one of the pillars of good storytelling - this was it. The characters tell you everything here. Rather than watching the princes struggle to deal with a difficult situation, we get to see him rigidly standing from a char and saying "I feel trapped". Instead of showing signs that the people of St. Savarre were warming up to Tasha we see a reporter in a press conference conspicuously say "I have my headline: Royal with a heart." Unfortunately, what that means is that the whole movie feels very shallow and contrived.
The wedding of course, is supposed to happen at Christmas, and that's how the Christmas theme manifests itself during the movie: the palace is decorated for the holidays and when it comes the time to pick a cake, the flavours are chocolate and Marzipan and other Christmassy things. There's even an "angel" (a good-hearted stranger that appears out of nowhere to help the protagonists out of a tough spot). All in all, the theme is far more present than in the first instalment of the series
Furthermore, this time the movie takes place at St. Savarre, and the scenarios are beautiful. We get to see lavish palace interiors, and a cathedral which, however small, is rather beautiful, all decorated with wood pannels, oil paintings and stainglass... The clothes the characters wear, the royals in particular also saw some improvement in relation to the first film. Be that as it may, it's still far from my favourite movie this season, and I don't think I'll be watching it again.
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