It’s officially fall, and that means it’s Christmas movie season in my house. So it was an instant watch when I saw A Royal Date for Christmas in the Netflix carousel. This film originally aired on the Great American Family channel around Thanksgiving in 2023. Directed by Bradley Walsh and written by Cara J. Russell, this is a cozy Christmas romance in the style of those popularized by the Hallmark channel.
On paper, this movie is a home run. He’s a secret royal (ok, not really a royal – but a duke!) and she’s a small-town girl who owns a couture fashion business. They’re from different worlds and different countries. He has a bad boy/troubled image, although he’s not actually a bad boy, and she wants to save him. He’s grumpy; she’s sunshine. After the Duke’s luggage is lost on the way to this town, he comes into her shop needing her outfitting services for a week of must-attend holiday events. It turns out he also needs a plus-one for these events. In need of money to expand her business, Bella agrees. It has all the elements to be a really satisfying and fun romance watch. But the execution is SO bland.
The leads are both seasoned actors, and the disappointment in this film cuts deeper because they both have a ton of experience in the TV romance movie genre. Danica McKellar – yes, Winnie from The Wonder Years – has owned the Hallmark-esque royal romance lane as of late. She is prolific, with at least two of these films, The Christmas Yes List and The Greatest Christmas Gift, coming out later this year. McKellar‘s Hallmark-esque chops are so well known that in Knives Out, she’s mentioned for being in a Hallmark film. When the actress moved over to the Great American Family Channel, it was considered a big coup.
Similarly, Damon Runyan is a veteran of the comfortable holiday romance movie circuit. He was the lead in A Snowy Christmas and Christmas in Washington, where he played a grumpy foreign Ambassador who falls in love with his interior designer. Runyan has experience playing characters with some edge too. He was excellent as the Klingon leader Ujilli in Star Trek: Discovery.
The problem with A Royal Date for Christmas lies in both the stakes for the characters, both personal and professional, and the chemistry of the leads together. Bella has a professional problem – she needs money for her business. It’s a great setup, but it never feels urgent. She’s not going to lose her couture shop if she doesn’t get the bank loan. She just won’t be able to expand her offerings. And her personal problem, her happiness, is mentioned too, but similarly never feels urgent. She’s a successful woman, has friends, and does lots of charity work. There are discussions about her happiness, but she’s never pining over this. The worst of her problems happen briefly when Bella and the Duke are separated, but by then it’s so far along in the movie that it hardly offers the audience a glimpse of her emotional motivations.
The Duke doesn’t have a high-stakes problem either. He’s lost his luggage and the tabloids are looking for the worst in him. There is a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it moment where the film hints at a real issue – Bella and her friend Meredith (Patrice Goodman) discuss a report where there’s someone calling for him to be stripped of the title, but we never revisit that or see it from The Duke’s perspective. Nothing bad will happen to him except a bad reputation. Tangford House hasn’t been open since his mother’s passing, but it doesn’t haunt him.
The performances of McKellar and Runyan together in this film feel muted – there’s no spark, let alone chemistry, between them. Both actors are great to watch in their scenes without each other. McKellar is sunny and at times, melodramatic while Runyan has some ruminating brooding with his valet, Benjamin (Nigel Hamer). But Runyan and McKellar are a mismatch together. There’s no fun flirting or back-and-forth volleying, just polite frictionless scenes. Even the grand finale kiss that ends the film is without oomph. As a viewer, I feel somewhat tricked because the film’s poster promises a love story that doesn’t happen.
In a good romance book or movie, the lead couple is usually separated after they have already completely fallen for each other. They have a disagreement that sets them apart – one last obstacle on their way to love. Traditionally, because the couple loves each other, the separation adds extra stakes because they have more to lose. The misunderstanding between Bella and the Duke is so hastily accomplished that neither character has time to express genuine heartbreak. The Duke seems inconvenienced and Bella is hurt, but it is solved immediately without any work by the characters. They don’t have to earn their happy ending.
A Royal Date for Christmas is fine as background noise, but not worth 90 minutes of your undivided attention. Generous fake snow and an insane wreath and garland budget are festive, but they can’t revive a boring romance. A Royal Date for Christmas checks every holiday box on paper, but forgets that even light escapism needs a pulse to work.
A Royal Date for Christmas is now streaming on Netflix.
Learn more about the film at the IMDB site for the title.
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