Stream It Or Skip It: ‘A Not So Royal Christmas’ on Hallmark, in Which A Case of Mistaken Identity Has Royal Consequences

Hallmark loves a royal holiday story, and tries to shake it up the formula with one, that’s, well, A Not So Royal Christmas. What makes it not so royal? It’s built on deception! Gasp! Indeed, there are lies flying from both sides as Brooke D’Orsay and Will Kemp as leads who go head-to-head to see who can keep up their ruse and still get what they want. But what if what they want is… love? As you can imagine, things are about to get complicated, so prepare yourselves for a twisting journey to a fictional European land.

The Gist: Charlotte Collins (Brooke D’Orsay) is an American journalist who has been living in London and writing for the British tabloid Royal Gossip Entertainment (RGE) for the past five years. Even though she has put in great work throughout her time there, her gossip-hungry boss Tony (Lindsay Owen Pierre) refuses to give her a raise unless she can score an exclusive interview with the elusive Count of Sorhagen. With the knowledge that she needs to make more money or return home to Milwaukee when her visa runs out next month, Chalotte heads to Sorhagen, Nordin in hopes of getting the interview of a lifetime.

Meanwhile, the real Count Lars of Sorhagen has been MIA for the past four years. It turns out that he abdicated the title for love after he fell for an American girl, leaving the Sorhagen Palace insiders desperately trying to cover up the truth in order to maintain the few tourists that still receive (a number that’s only dwindling with every year). When Charlotte sneaks off from her palace group tour to find Sorhagen seasonal landscaper Adam Pederson (Will Kemp) playing piano in the drawing room, she immediately assumes that he’s the elusive Count. Knowing that the royals would never willingly talk to a tabloid, Charlotte then claims to be a journalist from the reputable publication Monarch Insider in order to get the scoop and then finagles her way to unknowingly forcing Adam into a high-stakes lie that threatens to have international consequences.

What Movies Will It Remind You Of?: The plot of an American reporter going to meet with a royal, only to be wrapped up in a case of mistaken identity that ultimately leads to romance is echoed in the 2019 Netflix Original romantic-comedy A Christmas Prince.

Performance Worth Watching: Will Kemp seems to have fun as the phony Count Adam Pederson, displaying a natural affability and genuineness that makes you root for and like him even when his character is helping dupe the world.

Memorable Dialogue: “Well, you know, my motto is ‘like apples and pears, the juicier, the better.’” Evidently, only a gossip magazine editor would have a motto so random and yet so specific to his craft.

A Holiday Tradition: Every year for over a century, Sorhagen hosts a grand Yuletide Ball steeped in tradition and decorum. Additional Sorhagen traditions include: hiding little Nisse gnomes around the Sorhagen grounds so children can find them and win prizes, the town square wreath lighting ceremony, and a Julebord Scandinavian Christmas feast.

Does the Title Make Any Sense?: Sort of. It makes sense in that Adam is a fake royal for most of the movie, but then that sort of changes by the end, so it feels like A Royal Christmas could have been just as apt. Maybe they didn’t use the latter because it’s already a Hallmark movie title.

Our Take: A Not So Royal Christmas has some solid moments, mostly due to the likability and easy charm of Will Kemp’s Adam. And while parts of its premise held major promise, it felt like perhaps the movie could have been best served if they just picked one lie to run with: either Charlotte is a fraud, or it’s Adam. To have it be both made my anxiety ratchet the more each lie went on, especially because in our current digital age, it feels like it would be extremely easy to prove that either of them were fibbing.

Like seriously, I know Sorhagen is supposed to be a bit strapped for cash but couldn’t they at least Google Charlotte to verify which publication she worked for? It just felt that the filmmakers wanted there to be so many lies on both sides that they all canceled out in the end, but personally, I don’t think all those mutual lies are ideal for building a romance right away. More importantly, how do they both lie so much and still end up okay, like reputation-wise? I feel like this becomes a matter of national security on Adam’s side especially, so you’d expect some more far-reaching negative consequences of his actions rather than him being rewarded for his repeated impudence (I love that he was trying to help the people of Sorhagen but the guy had some big jingle bells to try bargaining with his King and Queen to supersede centuries-old tradition to support the masses).

Also, I know that it’s easier, or perhaps just a legal thing to make up a nation to rule over instead of making Adam the Count for an existing place, but I found the the logistics of Sorhagen, Nordin to be a bit confusing. I thought that it must be some sort of parody of the United Kingdom since literally everyone native to there has a British accent, but they reveal partway through that it’s a Scandinavian country and then bolster it with the appearance things like Nisse dolls, Julebord, and the Northern Lights.

And then there’s the King (Peter Millard) and Queen (Toni Ellwand) who are somehow okay with keeping this lie going on an international scale possibly forever because they’d rather have a random stranger pretend to be royal than admit the truth about their nephew Lars, all to get Sorhagen more tourism and money. I don’t mean to sound nitpicky. It’s just that these things stuck out for me more than the actual plot points and romance, which probably doesn’t bode well for the overall impression of the film’s impact.

Our Call: SKIP IT. A Not So Royal Christmas is a decent movie that takes lies about identity just a little bit too far to feel satisfied in the end.